Apech

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Posts posted by Apech

  1. Posted

    2 hours ago, Taomeow said:

     

    I read about it a while ago, and I think I even mentioned it here on TDB at the time.  The article I recall was about Native American tribes where trans folks were thought of as special, sometimes became shamans because they were thought of as naturally talented toward  "straddling both worlds," and so on, and not discriminated against in the least.

     

    The difference from the modern approach being, they didn't resort to surgical and hormonal sex change, they just accepted the fact of this dichotomy (body and mind of different "worlds" in the same person), much the way people accept other things about their own and other people's bodies that may not correspond to the ideal body they would prefer -- shorter or taller than average, thinner or fatter, asthenic type or hypersthenic type, boobs of all sizes and shapes with no particular size or shape fetishized, and so on.  There was no inner conflict and no outer bias, pressure to conform, activism to promote, or any social disadvantages to just feeling a particular way inside one's body and making those feelings known to others.  And above all, no money changing hands as a "side effect" (or as some cats would suspect, as the root cause of an exponential growth in the number of such occurrences.)  


    Reminds me of a book you recommended years ago ‘The Shaman and the Heresiarch’ 

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    9 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

     

    I so rarely find myself vibing with any of your opinions on social issues, but reading the post above I feel like sitting next to you on a park bench and being old foggies together. Lets get Apech.  I´ll buy birdseed to feed the pigeons.

     

    (To be honest, I enjoy sexually themed shows.  I liked Transparent.  Back in the day, my best friend used to throw weekly Queer as Folk parties; we´d all huddle around the TV, eager to watch a sexy soap featuring gays like us.  That was fun. But I do wonder if as a culture we´re overdoing the identity thing; are we a bit too quick to put ourselves and others into various ideologically bogged-down boxes?  Let´s have (consensual, ethical) sex with who we want to have sex with.  Let´s dress up in gowns or jeans or leather panties.  Whatever.  But do we have to make such a big deal about the name we give ourselves?  Maybe our labels aren´t so important.)

     

     

    Hang on ... there's something about the formula 'old foggy = Apech' which I don't warm to. lol.

    • Haha 4

  3. Posted

    13 minutes ago, Maddie said:

     

    You should watch the youtube video that I posted, it speaks about this. Basically gender is a mental thing. If you look at cultures throughout history and around the world how they interpret gender varies greatly. Gender is an identity. Identities are of the mind. Sex is physiological. 

     

     

     

    I think there are deeper levels to what constitutes a person than body and mind.  I don't find the arguments made by these videos at all convincing - they seem very glib and superficial to me.  This is not a criticism of you and what you are doing by the way - just how I see these important issues being addressed.

     

     

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    3 hours ago, Maddie said:

     

    I realized I kind of glossed over this part of what you said. 

     

    Something really important to understand when it comes to transgender issues is the difference between the gender and sex.

     

    Sex is a little more straightforward and it's based on physiology and genitalia. 

     

    Gender is actually a cultural and psychological identification of the mind. 

     

    I'm not sure if this can actually be true.  I wonder if you could say why you think this.

     

    3 hours ago, Maddie said:

    The important thing to realize is that gender and sex are not synonymous and that the reason people who identify as a different gender than their sex transition is so that they can align their sex more correctly with the gender that they identify with. 

     

    Another common misconception and important point to realize is that it's not a conscious choice just in the same way that sexual preference is not a conscious choice.

     

    Yes.  Something deeper.  Spirit likes variety I think.  

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    3 hours ago, Maddie said:

     

    Yin/Yang indeed lol. 

     

    There have actually been a number of psychological changes that have occurred since I began transitioning. When I began my medical transition I was put on a combination of testosterone blockers and estrogen pills. This completely changed my body chemistry from male to female. This had a dramatic effect on my emotional life and perceptions. 

     

    For one thing I cry much  easier. Before as a man I would rarely cry, maybe once every few years. It wasn't that I was not trying to, it just didn't happen. Now I cry easily several times a week, and often for not obvious reason. This was one of the first changes I noticed. 

     

    I wonder if this has to do with moving focus onto the heart centre - rather than head or belly (which is where most men dwell).

     

    3 hours ago, Maddie said:

    My sense of smell has become more sensitive as well. While many years of cultivation has made me sexually indifferent I perceive men differently than I used to. I used to be completely indifferent to a man's appearance aside from the obvious of realizing a well groomed in shape man was better looking than an unwashed bum (no offense Dao Bums). Now I find attractive men catching my eye in a way that they had not before. I am still not sexually attracted to them (nor am I to women) but I find them more aesthetically pleasing. 

     

    Why did cultivation make you sexually indifferent.  This seems a strange thing to me - as most men get more sexually charged by working with jing/qi until it becomes a problem.

     

    3 hours ago, Maddie said:

    Now here's one that I don't care for but you take the bad with the good. I have lost significant amounts of muscle strength, especially upper body strength. When I was in college I did jujitsu and did not find sparing with men to be difficult on a strength level, but now I am significantly overpowered when sparring with men. I guess the plus side is this forces me to rely on technique more, which is how its supposed to be in jujitsu lol. 

     

    Those are a few of the more obvious changes that I was able to think of off the top of my head.  

     

  12. Posted

    12 minutes ago, Maddie said:

     

    hahaha I was actually doing that one because I really didn't want to do Zhunti again but it just wasn't doing the trick. I reflected on how anytime something good financially had happened to me I had been doing a lot of Zhunti. So back it is again. 


    i don’t know zhunti what’s it for?

  15. Posted

    On 09/04/2024 at 3:58 AM, Maddie said:

    I'm back to another Zhunti mantra experiment out of desperation to save my business. Let's see how this goes. 


    What’s happening with your business?

  16. Posted

    On 26/03/2024 at 8:25 PM, blue eyed snake said:

    to go further on "Dutch" it keeps surprising me that the original religion has been wiped out so thoroughly, there is almost nothing to be found from before Christianity. I count myself as born from Frisian descent and thus Germanic gods and culture should be the homeground.

     

    but it's nowhere to be found, the Christians wiped out anything.

     

    Dutch culture, what culture?

     

     

    Pretty much the same for Anglo- Saxon apart from place names and Beowulf - which is why Tolkien tried to recreate a mythology for England in his works including LOTR.

     

    If you want to know about various forms of paganism you could try the YouTube channel called ‘survive the jive’ .

     

     

  19. Posted

    1 hour ago, Taoist Texts said:

    nice pajamas hombre

    him  who coined that old hat puts it best

     'I sit and forget everything.' Zhongni changed countenance, and said, 'What do you mean by saying that you sit and forget (everything)?' Yan Hui replied, 'My connexion with the body and its parts is dissolved; my perceptive organs are discarded. Thus leaving my material form, and bidding farewell to my knowledge, I am become one with the Great Pervader. This I call sitting and forgetting all things.' ........Zhongni said, '

     

     Zhuang-zi says it is actually a Confucian thing.  Since he was the first to write that term down , he probably knows ;) 


    Confuse us?

    • Haha 2

  20. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Taoist Texts said:

    good job on translation. just one small thing: what you rendered "sitting with concealment" “隐机而坐”  is actually this posture

    image.png.c4f7d1ceaaa74c6b67bce21215ccd8ec.pngleaning with one elbow on a small table or a pillow

     

     

    That's me - when I'm feeling lively.

     

     

    • Haha 1

  22. Posted

    14 minutes ago, Master Logray said:

     

    For reading or practising?

     

    In the first instance I want to make sure that I understand what zouwang is - and then to read about how to practise.

     

    Some of what I have read suggests it is part of the Buddhist/Daoist crossover ... but I am wondering if it is actually the basis of the direct schools of Buddhism like Dzogchen and Mahamudra also (which have uncertain mythic origins).  I have long held that Tibetan Buddhism particularly has much Daoist influence which is unacknowledged.

     

     

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    1 hour ago, S:C said:

    34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

     

    this has been wondering me for years now… what is the meaning of this sentence, is it related to perception?


    The truth of the logos cuts through ignorance and mal intent like a sharp sword.  

    • Like 2

  25. Posted

    1 hour ago, liminal_luke said:

     

    Careful, Apech.  Unlike white cats, I´m a member of a protected class and have got Scotland Yard on speed dial.  


    As a Mexico-Gringo you probably think Scotland Yard is in Scotland but you would be mistaken! 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1