Gerard

Soul Ages Not a Taoist reading or subject but regardless CONSCIOUSNESS does not differentiate between religions and sciences (Taoism as an esoteric one) and this link offers (pretty much like Jane Roberts did as an Earth incarnation of SETH) very accurate information about SOUL EVOLUTION. We are on a planet dominated by YOUNG SOULS and BABY SOULS; the rest of the categories are all spread out pretty much like statistical data. OLD SOULS are the outliers when reading statistical data. This pandemic is a good example of how the planet is currently evolving. Technology (the young soul's favourite weapon) dictates modern life, which in turn is causing a lot of damage to the Earth itself (Earth phase in the Five Elements theory). Technology is associated with thinking and the ego which are Wood qualities (Wood controls Earth in the Five Elements). Highly recommended reading. Enjoy! *Note: Trying to figure out which article Iinked back then but I'm pretty sure it was related to the Universal Tao website. I couldn't find it. My apologies for deleting it.

What to do then: 1. Find a real life teacher that teaches an ENTIRE SYSTEM passed on by generations of practitioners. Examples are Chinese Internal Martial Arts and Buddhist Vipassana (walking + seated meditation). 2. Practice it with earnest effort and DAILY (take breaks when the Body-Mind tells you to). 3. Enjoy that path. If you don't, then you'll need to find one that suits your personality. 4. Keep chopping wood and carrying water because that's something you'll do for the rest of your life

The ones totally unrelated to it. Anything forced, sought after or attached to only serves to: 1. Block the Qi flow 2. Satisfy the EGO

...AND move more than you sit. Are you a shepherd or a mountain guide? Sitting will be a relief, you'll enjoy it and get most out of it. Are you a computer person? Sitting will be a nightmare. Moving practices like walking meditation many hours a day or Internal Martial Arts will open you up steadily and nicely and help you attain wisdom. Combining sitting and moving is the key.

Yes as long as you don't go back and do the stuff that caused you trouble. Focus on ground work and when the head is clear again learn to meditate properly. Focus on BREATHING and watching YOUR THOUGHTS and various BODILY SENSATIONS. This is a skill that takes many years of practice. Stay away from energy building stuff. Tips: https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-vipassana-insight-meditation/ I favour Buddhist seated meditation methods above any others. Safer for sure.

From the linked passage: "He wished only to make me see for myself that Buddhists do not have a monopoly of wisdom." Clap, clap, clap. It happens to the very date today. Just go to YT and search for any videos about Buddhism. They want to patronise this ENLIGHTENMENT AND BUDDHA issue as if it was the ONLY & REAL TRUTH. Yes Thomas & John both helped to open the ancient wisdom of the longest lasting civilisation to the rest of the world (and most of it is still unaware of it). George Gurdjieff is another author I came across when I first started on this path and I owe him a lot too!

Same goes with this other MUST-READ book: My Journey in Mystic China: Old Pu's Travel Diary (2008) by John Blofeld (Author), Daniel Reid (Translator). It will open you eyes to the amazing and longest lasting civilization that China is or should I say was due to the untold and deep damaged caused by Maoists and now fully embracing the Western was. I nearly cried when I finished reading this book! My favourite chapter is the author's encounter with the Taoist 'immortal.' Sorry for the off-topic post.

In which country are you located? Solution: 1. Go to Youtube 2. Type in the search box: Asian Squat (browse and learn from several sources; there are several very helpful videos by experienced practitioners not the typical Asian person who has been doing this since childhood) & Pole assisted Squat (probably start wit this one and progress slowly; it will take you a long time to re-educate your body & mind). 4. Practice the above on a DAILY BASIS. Stay low in the pole assisted squat as long as you like. I used to stay low for up to nearly an hour! It shows how ungrounded we have become with all the thinking, technology, schooling, study, sitting on chairs, driving cars and so on. 5. Perform these (or the plain Asian squat once you are able to do it unassisted) exercises for the rest of your life. 6. Stop any seated meditation practice until the stuck Qi in the head is gone. Good luck! Any questions feel free to ask once you get started. Tips for the Asian Squat: 1. Once you are comfortable with the pole version, get several kettlebells (alternatively dumbbells if you can't find them) of various weight increments; eg. 15-12-10-8-6-4-2Kg and practice starting with the lowest weight you can squat Asian-style comfortably. Once it gets too easy then start with the next weight down on your list; from 15kg to 12kg. 2. Don't take large increments in weight being dropped as you need to give some leeway to your body & mind; that is, make sure the weight drop is smooth; otherwise it will cause unexpected blockages and /or stagnation. Better to go from 15kg to 14kg than 15 to 10. The larger the difference between the two will make the exercise more difficult to perform, which is not what you are after. It took me roughly 2 years of daily training the squat with kettlebells before i could squat down unassisted and stay in the full squat position for some time in order to develop good grounding skills and remove stagnation from the leg and waist channels as well as clearing the lower jiao.

Rat no more, please bring in the strength of the Ox. Thanks

FINALLY! Thanks to the person who has changed the animal logo.

Thank you Thomas Cleary for leading me to the HIDDEN WORLD after reading: OPENING THE DRAGON GATE: THE MAKING OF A MODERN TAOIST WIZARD (1996).

Here is one that could replace the now gone Metal Rat. It's a very earthy year as some of you already picked up in your practice. Health & strength! Happy 2021 Year of the White Buffalo.

Not meat exactly but their karmic fires rising up during full moon as Yin & Yang have an increased flow during full moon. The Kidney is the source of all Y&Y in our energetic system and when that flow is increased it opens up the Liver which store sexual desire & the Heart which stores anger. That's the reason humans become more aggressive and sexually active during that time PLUS bear in mind most humanity is in a state of waking sleep as Gurdjieff brilliantly discussed in "The Fourth Way."

Knock, knock... WHERE IS THE BUFFALO!

If it were not for the mighty martial art of Bagua Quan (Taoist circle walking + direct connection to ancient Chinese Medical Theory + connection to Spirit (Mind-Body paradigm), I would wear a mask today fearful of coronavirus like many humans are, eating bad food, having succulent dinners, getting drunk every now and then, enjoying casual sex, hating society and being rude...etc. you name it. From a sinner to a saint, this is what my teacher told me once. There is a book that goes deep into this written by another Bagua practitioner, Dr. Michael Guen: https://www.amazon.com/Way-Saint-Michael-Guen/dp/0976384973 Big Thank You to ancient China and the Bagua masters of old (Dong Haichuan the modern founder of this Chinese internal martial art, Yin Fu, Ma Gui, Cheng Tinghua and Liang Zhenpu) and my teachers Geoff Sweeting and He Jinghan. Taoism and the Five Arts: 1. Divination. The art of obtaining answers from Heaven to your queries about the future. Techniques abound, from the prehistoric way of divining the future with the help of oracle bones to numeric exercises, often based on Book of Changes (I-Ching). 2. Destiny. The art of knowing your fate through your horoscope; Ba Zi and Purple Star Astrology are the most typical ways of analyzing and predicting your fate. 3. Physiognomy. Study of forms or appearances. Feng Shui, as well as Palm and Face Reading all fall under this category. 4. Medicine. The art of healing. It includes all forms of traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbal prescriptions. 5. Mountain/Warriorship. It is the philosophical art. It is about elevating yourself above the mundane through asceticism, martial arts, meditation and self-healing. ................ I liked the quote from the movie Conan the Barbarian (1982). Conan got strong by doing circle walking too!

He'll be like a hawk! That's how my teacher, Geoff Sweeting, taught me and that's how he learnt from his uncle and also his Beijing-based Bagua & Xingyi teacher, Wang Tong, taught him. I remember early in my training years one fellow arriving in one f our park lessons enquiring about our Bagua lessons. My teacher asked him to perform circle walking. He only walked the circle a couple of rounds and I remember him saying: What are you doing exactly? Thats how bad his form was. i was only a beginner back then but I knew his form was terrible, completely disconnected, no 'spirit' in the way he was moving, uncoordinated, lacking in root. Interestingly he left upset, offended abs he thought my teacher was rude. The thing is he learnt circle walking from a really bad clueless teacher...or maybe he learned it online, from watching YT videos. We'll never know. We never saw him again, also unfortunately as he could have learnt a life changing internal art.

Try my teacher's teacher (also his uncle): http://www.internalintent.com/global Also one of He Jinghan's senior students who is near your country: https://sk-sk.facebook.com/miroslav.bakos.3/photos Slovakia

Pleasantly surprised by the film Sound of Metal (2019). A highly recommended watch. Note: About the film director, Darius Marder: "Marder grew up in Conway, Massachusetts with his parents and four siblings. His parents, Lauri and Efrem Marder, both artists from New York, lived according to the teachings of the Russian philosopher and mystic George Gurdjieff." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_Marder

More about Foundation work is provided by the Bagua specialist He Jinghan: https://baguaquanlessons.com/blog/ Plus his YouTube channel. Assisted Ma Bu using a tree or a light pole and similar is a great exercise to open the kua, stretch groin tendons, open meridians that run in the area and for grounding purposes; eg. we have been conditioned since childhood to sit in chairs many hours a day and use seated toilets instead of squatting down the floor as they still do in many Asian countries. You can find plenty of videos on YT about how to train the Asian squat.

1. Both. 2. Both + a lot more 3. Make sure you find a teacher who knows the mechanics of the art in depth. 4. You need to put a lot of effort to reap the real benefits. 5. Foundation work is a must. For example: https://kungfuprincess-on-the-road.com/kungfu-knowledge-series-these-are-the-5-main-kung-fu-stances/

So interesting that you need to nourish both Spleen and Kidneys like a newborn child. This textbook is one of the most important ones of the entire Taoist scientific catalogue: Treatise on the Spleen & Stomach: A Translation of the Pi Wei Lun Diet & emotions indeed as the two most important factors but also Lifestyle as per the Yellow Emperor's medical book. There are also other reasons like sexual activity, materialism...they will age you fast.

Try these: https://www.baguanyc.com/ (Baguazhang) http://www.chinatowninternalarts.com/home (Xingyiquan)

Indeed! But that forum will enable you to contact teachers in your area/country/etc. I'm not an advocate of online learning.

1. You need to strengthen yourself. Like a solid pillar of an ancient Egyptian temple which stands the true test of time. Ask for teachers on this other forum: https://rumsoakedfist.org/viewforum.php?f=4 For fighting take up Yoga lessons, to heal yourself take up a martial art. 2. You need to eat breakfast like a king, the most important meal of the day and also when the digestive system peaks (7am to midday). Lunch before midday and eat frugally. No dinner i'm afraid. It messes up the whole organ-meridian system. The Year of the Buffalo is great for this advice I'm giving you. Good luck

As per topic discussion: Roseto effect "Wolf attributed Rosetans' lower heart disease rate to lower stress. "'The community,' Wolf says, 'was very cohesive. There was no keeping up with the Joneses. Houses were very close together, and everyone lived more or less alike.'" Elders were revered and incorporated into community life. Housewives were respected, and fathers ran the families." This is still visible in Japan and the Chinese still eat together reunited with relatives and close friends. ...and honour and respect the food prior eating it! Why Japanese say Itadakimasu together before they eat? An imbalanced/weakened/deficient Spleen/Earth Force = the mother of a thousand diseases. Same with an overactive Stomach due to excessive information processing (what we all learn from a young age at school). No Spleen = no Qi. This is very serious stuff you don't want to mess up with. Excessive Wood Force: technology & thinking. It weakens and damages the Earth Force. I see people all the time in Brisbane, Australia eating junk/fast food while playing with their smartphones and laptops in the shopping centres. At home would be the same. Hello Covid-19 = Humanity...time to wake up! And more to come... this is only the beginning. NOTE THIS INFO REALLY WELL. Carved it on your kitchen's wall if needed as a good reminder.