cheya

*Bump*   

 (Can't help thinking about Nungali...  )

Well.... now that you've said that, of course you should!

(Curiosity killed the cat?  )

Welcome, Xanda!

Well, I don't have a clue what it actually means,

but what would make sense to me is if it meant something like

"Not daring to act before heaven acts."

So... always following heaven's lead.

Humble before heaven.

Thank you Sagebrush!

Looking forward to checking that out.

Hi Rene,

Glad you like it! It's from the Tao Te Ching: A New Translation with Commentary.

She explains a lot that I just never got from other translations. This was back when I was so into it that I got a bunch of translations... but her commentaries really are helpful at putting things together I otherwise miss. 

I like what Ellen Chen said about this chapter in her general comment (included below), which helps me make more sense of and see more connections between these first few chapters.

Her translation doesn't seem to differ much:

1. Tao is a whirling emptiness, 

Yet in use is inexhaustible.

Fathomless,

It seems to be the ancestor of ten thousand beings.

2. It blunts the sharp,

Unties the entangled,

Harmonizes the bright,

Mixes the dust,

Dark,

It seems perhaps to exist.

3. I do to know whose child it is,

It is an image of what precedes God (Ti)

Her General Comment (followed by a couple pages of Detailed Comments...)

"In Chapter 1 we witness the bifurcation of the everlasting Tao and name into the duality of non-being and being. In chapters 2 and 3 we are given the distinction between natural opposites that arise together and complement each other and value or moral opposites that break up the unity of nature and vitiate human life. In this chapter we see how opposites, which issue from Tao, become again identified when they return to Tao. Tao is the dark womb that pours out (1) and receives back (2) all beings. Its unceasing fecundity is due to its unceasing activity, blending and preparing all that have returned to it  for their reemergence into the light of existence.  As this unceasing creativity Tao hardly seems to exist, yet it is prior to God or the Lord on High.

(Sorry I left out a number of chinese words she includes in the translation. I could put them in if needed/helpful.)

Bump.

This is indeed a great Sufi article!

Dust, thank you again!

For some reason, "compassion" has never satisfied me as a translation, and I really appreciate your expansion on this.

From what you have offered, I prefer "tender love of (all) life", and also wonder, not going buddhist here as in the filial bit, but could it be love for the Great Mother, as the source of all life? 

And now maybe you'll have a go at "frugality"?

Thank you Dust! That was helpful!

Curious about your understanding of the first two terms as well...   

Compassion?

Frugality?

Just how we might normally understand those words?

Thank you!

@ Brian,

Not really experienced in this, but I would first put a real sealant on it (to keep stuff in the wall from getting out) and then maybe paint that with something like the PlusUltra (to keep new stuff from re-infesting the wall). 

And I would be sure to research to find the least reactive products possible on the chemical sensitivity sites. Or maybe Baubiologie groups or practitioners would be a good place to start.

(Building biology (or Baubiologie) is a field of building science investigating the indoor living environment for a variety of irritants. Practitioners study how the environment of residential, commercial and public buildings can affect the health of the occupants, producing a restful or stressful environment.

Well... if I was sure it was the wall, I would first vacuum the walls and ceiling (vacuum must have a really good HEPA filter on it so you're not just blowing more toxins into the air..) And then I would use something like this (never used it, just found it with google) http://www.radonseal.com/molds/mold-cleaner.htm .

And then I would try to find a concrete sealant that people with environmental/chemical sensitivity had found to be tolerable. There are bound to be sites for people with toxic reactions to their environment that would give you more experienced and specific advice than you will get with DB.   

Depending on the strength of your various detox pathways, one kind of toxin can give you a whole lot of trouble and another, hardly any at all. For instance, a friend is terribly sensitive to mold, and I'm not... but VOC's give me bad headaches and he has no problem at all with them. Hopefully even if you have to use some chemical products, you can find some products that control the toxins without causing more problems.

Good luck!

 Me too!

And if you can lie on the ground while you're in the sun, you get doubly charged! 

"Are Humans Solar Powered?

Are we, too, solar powered, like plants?  It’s no longer a question, it’s an answer.

Summary of TEDxtalk: Water, Cells, Life by Dr. Gerald Pollack, a water scientist at the University of Washington, tell us where the energy comes from that supplies our bodies with get up and go.  In it,  Dr. Pollack challenges the long-held explanation that the bulk of our energy comes from food, in the form of calories.  He provides an entirely new and very exciting paradigm, one that will open up new dimensions of body energy for accelerated healing and vitality.   And he shares his unexpected laboratory results to back his explanation up.  This will surely be a seminal TEDxtalk.

In it Dr. Pollack makes two unexpected and paradigm-advancing points.  

Hold onto your hat." 

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/are-humans-solar-powered

The links at the bottom of the article are pretty mind boggling too!

Don't feel like he's speaking to me at all.

It's very impersonal.

It just ... hits me good somehow   

Could I say my energy field just seems to be able to use it?

(Still puzzled by the blimps thing... same as getting lit up?)

Blimps?    

I've watched it a number of times now, lights up something different every time.

RV, what a puzzling post!   

Where to start? I've never done tai chi, just taiji ruler, an entirely different practice specifically designed to help you feel and circulate qi. Yes I've read Liao and TTC along with many other books ... but I'm in no way a practicing daoist.  Maybe more just a practicing qi junkie

Yes, I'm standing wuji these days... but only because it's required for a class I'm doing on Meridian Massage (applying Chinese medicine principles to massage). Feeling the upward flow is easy for me after more than four years of daily taiji ruler practice.  

I never had much sense of the downward flow until I started that Light chat, which is one reason I'm so enamored of it. Healer/psychics had told me my crown was blocked. But apparently not anymore. 

Early on in energy exploration I got the strong impression that the qi had its own agenda, and that any agenda I might impose was pretty much inferior to the agenda of the qi itself. So I tend to get the qi flowing, and then let it do its thing. Guess that could be seen as kind of dao-ish....   

Chemical Alchemy? Philosopher's Stone? Food Sources?

Well, have at it!

Oh... and Welcome to the Bums!

Welcome to the Bums! 

You're  bound to have some interesting perspectives on the topics you find here.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

On the other hand, some say there are no accidents...  

Either way, Welcome!

Here you go Fate:

The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu Translated by Burton Watson ...

 RV, I don't have a plan, not trying to do Taoist cultivation, just enjoying the downward flow of energy, entering the head, washing down, feels like a blessing, doesn't feel like shen diverging, although I probably wouldn't recognize that if it happened. Sometimes in the Light chat, the back of my head, or the top, or my forehead, activates. Sometimes the energy goes down and then rises up the back to the head. When I work other practices (standing wuji these days), energy flows up. When I work with Niwan, the energy sort of blossoms in my head and then cascades down. When I watch the Cousins shaktipat vid, my heart glows. 

So just exploring pretty randomly. Not very methodical!

But whatever I connect with in light chat feels really benevolent and restorative..

For me it is. Others I have talked to there often don't feel it that way.

Many don't feel it at all...

Hi RV   

That's what I call sitting by myself in the chat room over at another site — a friend called it  "self-chat" — where energy just seems to continuously pour down from above my head. Didn't think it was possible when first told about it, but that is my experience, so I sit there awhile most every night to enjoy the effect.

@ lifeforce....I don't actually have to intend either upward or downward right now, well, other than paying attention. In the Light chat, the energy just flows down, if I am open, that just seems to be what it does. In that practice I am sitting in front of my computer, if that's relevant.  If i get upset over something, heart closed down, I don't feel it, but that doesn't happen very often.

 And lately, just standing in a wash on the bottom of the big hill behind my house, even just watching the dogs casting about sniffing foxes, I hardly even have to pay attention, and I notice it, the energy kind of bubbling upwards. Doesn't feel like forcing.

Changing back and forth does take a shift in focus, but forcing seems too strong a word for what's happening right now...

When I watched the vid again in the evening, I didn't feel so much, but then watched again in the morning, and lots of energy effect again, not as much heart centered, more spread out, but still strong.

Lifeforce, do you still watch it?

@ shortstuff. Somehow not attracted to watching that vid at all!