sean

Yay! A good vs. evil vs. it's-all-one debate! Ok, I'll bite. I think there are certain words that are at such a high level of abstraction that it's very close to impossible, if not actually impossible, to sensibly debate using them. What one person means when they use the word "evil" or "God" or "love" is probably significantly different than another person. Worse, I think most people using these terms haven't even clearly defined them for themselves, so their own understanding itself will shift during a single argument. For this reason I believe that unless an enormous amount of time is dedicated to a meticulous preliminary establishment of these terms, arguing about wether they "exist" or not is just not productive. I mean, it can be fun, but it kind of reminds me of getting really drunk at a party and then doing a bunch of coke at around 4am, and suddenly it's dawn and you are out of your mind grinding your teeth with some yahoo you just met trying to tweak out a solution to world hunger. That being said, here's my take anyway. "Good" and "evil" are words humans use to describe phenomenon from within a specific perceptual position, or context. Like all polarities, I believe it's likely there is a place or state within which they are a part of. Something larger that is the space that keeps them separate and contains them both. But at our level of manifestation, good and evil may be as distinct and real as the difference between you and I. Sean.

Good Works vs. Self Centeredness http://www.healingdao.com/cgi-bin/tpost.pl?smessage=761 "That is why some Taoists are sometimes accused of being amoral, they refuse a fixed cultural idea of moral behavior because it does not match the fluid reality of the Life Force. Rigid moral ideas become evil when they block the flow of the Life Force and kill its spontaneous virtue of sustaining balance and integrity in the present moment. Cultivation of tao was traditionally done in pairs or small communities to ensure feedback in the beginning to developing cultivators so they are not deluded by stray impulses." "I think historically mass religions have served a useful function as a repository for spiritual values for their community. But because they cast the world in a good-evil struggle and ignore the third factor of neutral truth, the dualism produces a shadow that reveals itself sooner or later in holy wars, judgements against the non-believers, guilt at not meeting someone else's standard, etc." Regarding Violence http://www.healingdao.com/cgi-bin/tpost.pl?smessage=1460 "This is a very difficult question to answer. One, we have animal genes, and violence is allowed (spiritually) as the necessary pattern of their life and survival. So it may be incomplete evolution of animal aspect of our animal-divine hybrid that appears to be the nature of humans. The question as to whether there are larger evil beings (whether alien or divine) behind human violence, a kind of war in heaven that humans are the unconscious playground for, is an even tougher question. It is overlaid with so much religious myth and belief, although most of it is much more recent than we realize. The early Daosits never mention reincarnationi or hell. I believe that theywere very focused on the truth of the present moment containing all that is needed to be known spiritually. But that doesn't resolve the question of violence, and its origins. My own conclusion regarding karma is that violence contributes to shaping patterns of incarnation, as all violence leaves a soul incompletion. But I don't believe personally that some fall of man due to an evil act has perpetuated karma ever since. There is no motive in the first instance." Winn's definition of evil ... I think this is what you were looking for http://www.healingdao.com/cgi-bin/tpost.pl?smessage=1140 "The life force is expanding and contracting all the time, this is True Yin and True Yang. When the contraction is forced or frozen by force of will, so it cannot return, that is evil. Evil is real, and is the source of all fear. Being aware of evil and being afraid of it are two entirely different responses. Evil is self-limiting, its sphere of influence naturally contracts itself - if it expands too much it begins to behave in accordance with yin-yang cycles. Fear feeds evil, neutrality offers it a space to expand into (become yang, get back into cycle). Excess yang could be considered a precursor to evil, as it flips and becomes excess yin. If yin and yang keep cycling between extremes it is not evil, merely unstable and liable to produce suffering or disease. Evil requires intent/will to contract the life force in opposition to the natural phase of expansion. In a criminal murder trial, its the difference between first degree murder at one extreme and manslaughter (accidental killing) at the other. michael"

Very cool!

Hey Mr. Falk, just reading this post naturally got a ton of chi moving through my channels. Feels good. Great post.

The Tao Bums Gallery: A Crash Course First, up at the top right of the forum, click "My Controls" My Controls Now, to your left, find where it says "Invision Gallery" and click "Your Albums" Your Albums Now you will be taken to the Album Manager which will list any albums that you have created. If you want to create an album, click "Create an Album" now Create an Album You will now see the Create Album screen. Type in a clever Album Name and Album Description, and make sure you check the box next to "Public" to make your Gallery viewable to other members. Create an Album 2 Now you will want to upload images to your Album. Next to your Album name in the Album Manager, click the drop down in the "Controls" column that says "Select and Operation" and choose "Upload Image" Upload Image You will be taken to the "Post Image" page which looks like this Post Image Type in a caption for you photo, and an extended description in the box below if you'd like. At the bottom right, click "Browse" and navigate your local computer and find the image you'd like to upload. Remember, you can go back and edit this stuff later or even delete your post entirely so don't fret. Once you're through click "Post Image". If all goes well you will be taken back to your Album Manager. You can now view the picture(s) you've uploaded a couple of ways. 1) In your Album Manager you can select "View" from the Controls dropdown across from the album you want to look inside: View Album 2) You can click the "Gallery" link at the top of the forum, find your album in the list and click on it. Gallery Link ...

Hey, I moved this reply in the Everything Is Appropriate article in Contributed Articles to it's own topic here, because .... I think it's a great topic. Let's talk about different ideas people have about what exactly "shen" is or isn't. I have some thoughts but it's past my bedtime.

Yoda, your words here really effected me emotionally. Kind of out of no where --- not sure what I'm reacting to ... but thanks for writing this. I'll take this into my meditations this week.

I'm not sure Moose regularly checks in here anymore, but my "two cents", if you or anyone cares, would be that from a certain perspective karma is simply "cause" and "effect"; an impersonal force that binds reactions together and that is not moral, immoral or even amoral, it just is. It's somewhat of a blanket term at best and can be used to cover the gravity that pulls your beer to the floor when your grip loosens, to the unknown sequence of events that causes us to laugh at a funny joke or fall in love. We can go even further and anthropomorphize Karma; making up a god or gods that are behind this Law of cause and effect and then worship or demonize them. Could be useful. We can also choose a belief that karma extends beyond the deterministic chain reactions of "material particles" in an event we participate in. Both of these are probably untestable beliefs, but the latter in particular is one that I hold anyway.

Hello Lillian. Welcome to Tao Bums.

My sentiments exactly.

Here's another good tip. If you want to include an image you've upload in the gallery into a regular post on the forum, first navigate to your image in the gallery. Next, right click on the image and scroll down to Properties (or whatever it is called in your browser). Image Properties 1 Copy the full hyperlink next to the URL portion of the Properties window that pops up: Image Properties 2 Now go to the post that you want to include this image in and click the "IMG" button in the "Code Buttons" section of a new topic or reply. IMG pop up Paste the URL you copied from the gallery pic into this window and hit OK. If all has gone well when you post your message, the gallery image will appear in your post. Ok, that's all for now. Please don't hesitate to discuss any questions you have, or problems you encounter in this thread. Sean

I hesitate to jump on this one teeny splinter in your wonderful post ... especially since Yoda pretty much summed up my feelings on it ... and possibly you just used the word "embarassingly" artisticly and not as a literal expression of your feelings. But I'll write anyway because I remember you writing a striking post recently on HT about how you feel pretty damn good most of the time, but seem to miss out on bliss. Now, I am no bliss-guru ... damn I am in a near crappy mood at least 20% of my day. But, just as an outsider looking in, I wonder if this embarrassment, that is sort of laying on top of your happiness like a skin on milk ... perhaps only just slightly holding you back ... but enough to make things just a sprinkle less than utterly amazing.

My motivations exactly!

My understanding is that Scott's issue is with the nose-to-mat bridge, especially the way Furey teaches it. Not with other types of bridging which he frequently promotes; in fact the program he designed for me includes bridging which is why I've been getting into it lately. here is the relevant thread on CST opposing nose-to-mat bridge. And here are some articles discussing the CST approach to bridging: Threading Scorpion Bridge Threading Bridge BMX: Back Mobility Xtreme I'm not up on this kind of thing enough to know one way or the other, although intuitively I feel that rocking around in a nose-to-mat bridge looks dangerous for your neck.

Jessica, I'll try to find some time this weekend to create a visual documentation for you. Also, I'll turn on the ability to upload more than one pic at a time. Sorry about that Mr. Falk, didn't realize this was buried in the gallery options. Could've saved you some time.

yeah, I've noticed this too. frustrating. I'll look into it.

Thank you Michael! I've been a little lazy the last month or so to be honest. Staring at this giant Tao Bums to-do-list kind of cross eyed. But I'm back in the saddle and back to an all nighter or two a week, working my geek magic behind the scenes.

I'm not a fitness expert by any stretch (da dum dum tsss)... but I just wanted to chime in with my now cliche recommendation to purchase Scott Sonnon's Warrior Wellness DVD. I swear by it. I have never rehabilitated any serious physiological trauma from it, but there are tons of people on his forum that recover from all sorts of pretty intense shit. It will probably take you about a year to go from the Beginner to Advanced levels on that DVD. Which is strange because it looks so simple. But it dredges up and releases years and years of stored tension.

heh, you're all a bunch of star wars geeks. I just got back from seeing it. Not bad. I like the transition from super hi-tech to more low-fi to make it more seemless with the next one from the 70's. I thought it was interesting to contemplate how attachments, ie: love, can be manipulated to bring out evil. Not quite ready to join the stoics yet though. I'm still a romantic my friends. can't wait for the next one.

Yoda just came up with an idea for a new subforum for running, since many of us seem to be drawn to running lately. Here's the posts: ... Let's discuss this a bit. Personally at this point I think a whole subforum just for running seems a little too specific ... but I'm thinking it might be cool to have a subforum for the more physical/sport/body/flow centered practices that we all seem to enjoy so much. I also figured this might be a good opportunity to re-evaluate the forum breakdown again. We've gone through several versions ... one of the early ones was broken down into like a bunch of subforums like: general ___general discussion - random talk ___ranting and raving - extremely off-topic, potentially offensive material tao yoga and alchemy ___general - tao related, but not easily categorized ___philosophy - intellectual discussion, ie: philosophical taoism, buddhism, etc. ___qi gong and meditation - energy, breath, stillness, and emptiness practices ___medicine - diet, nutrition, tcm, etc. ___physical practice - wushu, body-flow, strength training, yoga, etc. ___jing gong - sexual practice ___geomancy, divination and astrology - feng shui, i ching, macrocosm, etc. ___art - music, dance, painting, poetry ___magick - talismans, ritual, etc. ___other paths - buddhism, sufism, christianity, hinduism, judaism, islam, kabbalah, etc ... SheepishLord's original suggested breakdown was pretty cool too: general taoism taoist alchemy taoist sexuality martial arts and physical training off-topic rants and raves So far though, the overall consensus I think keeps leaning toward simple is better. I think especially with the kind of work we are all doing here it's hard to draw strong categorical lines between any of the practices we engage in .. Anyway ... thoughts? Sean.

Very cool. Thanks for posting. (listening now)