YawningMind

We can try to squeeze square pegs into round holes by pretending yin is yang. Or we can let yin and yang run their course. As for which one of those is actually feminism... "Feminism", just like "god", "liberal", and "conservative", has become a meaningless word. A word loses its meaning, when people cease to agree on its meaning. You can't have a meaningful debate if you can't agree on the meaning of the word you're debating about. We can still debate about agreed-upon of subforms of feminism, and I think opening a thread about that would be more productive.

I wonder if horseflies have more consciousness than regular flies, by virtue of their size. Do they have bigger brains too? Or just bigger bodies? Mass murder of insects is natural, but I feel like we still should stop and think about it when we do it.

I've always found it bizarre how much time martial artists spend with antiquated weapons like commas, er kamas. Where do you even find those? If only more martial arts incorporated guns, and effective techniques thereof. The equivalent of a wooden practice sword could be a paintball or airsoft gun.

spring clothes her in fire a coffin clothes her body earth clothes the coffin

That is a very odd analogy - usually tent poles are used as a metaphor for an entirely different kind of love ("pitching a tent").

Why is A focusing so much effort on helping B when children are starving elsewhere in the world? Seems oddly myopic of him. Also, it seems like A is much happier than B in your scenario. A is content enough with his life that he has energy to spare for helping others, while B is so miserable that he craves attention for the smallest deeds. As myopic as A is, B is even more emotionally stunted; if anything, A should be feeling pity for B's lack of development. If A is feeling jealous of B, then A and B are simply two fools of different kinds.

I really wish I could cross my legs and meditate properly, but I have horrible flexibility (I've been working on that, though). The best I can do is to sit and keep my back straight. Lying down means falling asleep for me. Sleep is too much fun!

Lucky you. I'm burdened by all kinds of thoughts, each waking moment of my life. Even if I were to stand in line for hours each day, I wouldn't run out of fantasies to indulge in.

>easiest way to live in the present? I've been contemplating this question myself, OP. Living the future is too addicting and enjoyable, and it can be difficult to keep oneself tethered to the present.

This ability will help one conquer themselves, I think, so hopefully it is useful to Taoist practitioners on here. Hopefully there is someone here who can explain it better than I can. At first, it will take a lot of concentration, but it will become easier as you get more practice. First, relax the spot that is in pain. Let go of all the tension in it, and let the pain fill your mind. Face the pain in your mind, and feel how it is something that is not necessarily good or bad. Look at every aspect of the pain and see how there is nothing inherently negative in it upon deep examination. Finally, clear your mind of the feeling of the body part that is in pain. Sit and forget! If it doesn't work for you, then I probably explained it poorly. Someone help me explain it please! Either way please comment!!

Nihon-jin desu ka?

Hi, for a number of years I've had an ability to make my hands warmer simply by focusing and willing them to be warmer. It's only a few degrees change, but it's still something most people don't know how to do. I'm wondering if this is somehow related to qi, and if I can take this ability further and do something cooler with it. Thanks!!

Interesting, thanks guys!

Sorry for responding late; I was sleeping. Okay, you are correct! Thanks for commenting!

Well then you know better than I do. Sorry about that. Maybe I just tricked myself into being really non-self-indulgent with regards to pain or something. I guess I did attract the attention of someone who knows more about the subject, yay! Thanks for the info. I'll try and look into how Qi is related to pain.

Yes of course not, but if it's already there and we know it's there then why not relieve the suffering? Sometimes it's something short term and minor but painful like a stubbed toe. It's nice to be able to shrug off the discomfort in cases like these. Sometimes it's something long term like arthritis, that you can't really heal. Yeah, positive thinking! That can help with pain too! Sorry I am a little confused. How will focusing on NOW help if you are feeling pain NOW? That's not the kind of suffering I am referring to! I am referring to the suffering that is directly caused by pain even if people don't pity themselves. It can be decoupled with enough effort. I'm claiming you can even disconnect the suffering of suffocation from the pain of suffocation, and block the desire to breathe while still feeling the effects of oxygen deprivation, though it is more difficult than other kinds of pain. Yes of course! But that is a separate issue. This definitely depends on how proficient you are at tolerating pain. I was hoping that the method I wrote of could greatly increase one's tolerance. Hope you're feeling better now! Most importantly, this is an exercise in conquering the self. To be one step farther away from being psychologically debilitated by uncontrollable circumstances. I thought it was considered an important goal by Taoists.... Thanks for commenting!

This is quite an enlightening question, SereneBlue. If this was a Buddhist forum I might have called it a Koan, but seeing as this is a Taoist forum I'm not quite sure what to call it. It gave me a couple of interesting thoughts about the nature of self vs. universe. What I think is: Belief does lead to intent, but the originator of belief is experience. Then, the actions caused by intent create a new experience, and the cycle repeats itself! The self is that which experiences, believes, and intends, and the universe is that which gets experienced and intended on by the self! As for beliefs, they often have nothing to do with the universe - they're sort of there to fill in the gap between experience and intent. Along with thinking, planning, hoping, scheming, etc.

It might be a little more complicated than that. Let's say you close your mouth and wrinkle your nose (or close it with your fingers) so you can't breathe. Try sitting like that for a few minutes. You will want to open your mouth because you are suffering from lack of air. I don't think simply analyzing it is enough in this case. In order to defeat this sensation, you have to completely clear your mind and accept the state of suffering you experience It's a little harder than conquering most kinds of physical pain in my opinion, though personally I got a little spooked and took a breath anyways after I managed to conquer this one. Just because I don't actually want to suffocate myself. Sure, but the suffering still exists after merely realizing. We still have to look into it more to try and rid ourselves of it. If your mind can conquer itself, then it is a lot better than medication. No side effects, no withdrawal, no medical bills. Of course it is a lot harder, but that is why I brought it up. Thanks for commenting!

It probably isn't a good idea. When your body is feeling pain it's usually trying to tell you something. If you can't avoid the pain then it's one thing to ignore it (like if you stubbed your toe and are using the technique I posted to lessen the discomfort), but if you can avoid it, it might not be smart to seek it since you could end up hurting yourself. Even the sages in Zhuangzi wanted to keep their bodies whole. I'm very new here and my opinion may differ from the majority here, but I don't believe in taking unnaturally contorted poses in order to meditate. When I feel like meditating, I just sit or lay down in a comfortable pose and clear my mind; I don't try to twist my body into a position it doesn't want to go in. Also I mostly do "sitting and forgetting" meditation where I clear my mind; I don't do breathing meditation as much. Hopefully I'm not doing anything wrong, heheh. Thanks for commenting, and good luck with your meditation!

PM stands for private message. Clicking the PM button lets you compose a message to a particular individual on the forums. What confuses you about the chat?

Hi, I'm not sure if I should call myself a Taoist, but I have been greatly influenced by Taoist writings. I tend to think of things logically and attempt to have a somewhat internally consistent world view. The Tao Te Ching and Zhuang Zi have many statements which appear to be contradictions on the surface but hold greater meaning, and have caused me to think a lot. I also love arguing, but I don't care who wins the argument as long as the participants learn something; entering an argument just to convince the other party without having an open mind to listen to their arguments is a lack of virtue, in my opinion. Also, hopefully someone can poke holes in everything I say on here, so I can learn more! One of things I've been trying to do is gain victory over my self. I'm hoping to meet a Taoist sage on here who has conquered himself like in the Tao Te Ching! I've managed to somewhat rid myself of suffering caused by physical pain and also somewhat rid myself of anger, but there are probably people who are millions times better than me on here, so I'm itching to meet them!! My next target for self control is procrastination, and I'll probably start working on that tomorrow since it's getting pretty late around here.