madMUHHH

Speaking about ginseng. I just realized that I still have quite a good amount of Ashvagandha lying around here, which might have lost some potency through lying around for quite a long time, but should still do the trick. Ashvagandha is often mentioned in the same breath as ginseng, is considered a kidney yang tonic and is said to promote deep, dreamless sleep and a general calming and strengthening of the system. It doesn't seem to have any special connections to the liver TCM-wise, but a quick google search brought up this: So taking some of that actually seems to be a very reasonable idea to me, even though one probably shouldn't expect miraculous results. Any objections?

Ah, okay. That sounds very sensible. Thanks for clearing that up. Actually, I am not so sure about the chronicity issue. It's probably too early to tell, but actually I'd consider that whole insomnia-thingie over. I'm quite sure that I've identified (some of) the main causes (which ironically also involved doing too much qigong, at the wrong time) and got a decent pattern down to combat that. And so far I've been quite impressed by the results. So I'm not really sure whether we are looking at two distinct things or one greater pattern here. Both seems reasonable to me. Heh. I guess so. Maybe that's one of the resons I feel so un-German. As for the rest, though I do consider SFQ quite amazing and a powerful tool in itself, I get your point.

Hey, thanks for your input. +1 for Yoga it is, then. Full lotus? Check. Touching my toes? Check. Face bury between my knees? Not exactly sure what you mean with that. ^^ What's the specific reason for recommending ginger tea. What action is it supposed to have on the body/organs? Not doubting your recommendation, just trying to learn.

That's because that is how the body is supposed to work (and does work in a natural context). Link

Just to clear things up. I am not in any way whatsoever implying that Yoga or any of the Indian healing modalities are useless or inferior to the Chinese practices. It's simply that I feel more at home with the Chinese medical systems and have a better understanding of it. So in general I'd prefer material and techniques that help me get a more detailed grip on a subject I already know instead of introducing another different system. But yeah, even with that said, you are probably right that it's stupid to dismiss your suggestion based just on my subjective preference for a specific system. And as I said, I am considering it, but just want to weigh up my options, before making a concrete decision. You're probably right about that. If this thing persists, seeing a TCM doctor probably is the smartest option, regardless of whether I think this stretches my budget too much or not. And yes, online diagnosis shouldn't replace professional diagnosis. I alreadysuspected that I'd wind up with those two conclusions, so thanks for spelling that out for me. It's just that I was/am hoping that this, as it still is a rather recent issue, is something that's with a bit of dietary/herbal tinkering and some specific exercises might clear up rather easily. Hence this thread, to see what kind of options you people suggest and, if they sound sensible, try those out and see what happens. That might not be the most mature approach and might lead to a dead end every now and then and perhaps this is such a dead end. But similar to what exoircist_1699 just posted, I do think trying to fight things out on your own especially in the context of a decent qigong routine, also hat its merits, up to a point. And thanks for your input, everyone.

Umm....somewhere? Hmmm. I am not sure how much of an option visiting a TCM doctor is. First of all I'm not even sure whether there are any TCM practitioner in close proximity to where I live. Also I don't think my health insurance would cover that and as a university student that would most likely put it out of my financial reach. We'll see. And about the yoga thing. I'm ot a big fan of mixing different kinds of practices and generally prefer the Chinese systems. But I'm certainly considering that book. I'll see how this thread develops further and then make a decision. Yay, I actually recognized two Chinese symbols (上 & 不). Learning Chinese rules! I dunno, of those three things, the first one seems the most reasonable. But I only have a rather basic understanding of TCM from reading The Web That Has No Weaver about a year ago (Good book, though). I have been wanting to get back into TCM a bit more for quite some time now, so I guess this is a good opportunity. So, any idea on where to turn to, to make a more precise diagnosis?

I disagree. When you ask about whether certain being is more advanced than another, you always have to ask "In reference to what". Yeah, obviously us humans are more advanced than any other animal when it comes to things like intelligence or culture, but who ever said that those are the things that matter? That's in a way a very anthropocentric view. And of course the human species is going to come out on top if you set an anthropocentric standard. But, as has been put forth in this thread, our human intelligence might not be so helpful and awesome after all. So why should it be the standard and not speed, strength, age, resistance to external influences, importance for the wellbeing of the whole biosphere or something completely different? Basically, what I want to say is that science itself does not tell you anything about what species is most advanced. That's just not the kind of statement (natural) science can make, as it always takes someone to set subjective criteria for what it means to be "advanced".

You people are weird. So I guess this is the perfect place for me. About the Eckhart Tolle book: I dunno, "The Power of Now" is probably one of the books that changed me the most (for the better) just by me reading it. Mind you, it was also one of the first books I read that could be considered "spiritual", but still I really can't say anything bad about it.

So why not simply love that someone instead? At the very least for the time you two are intimate.

Great advice! I just recently made the decision to start using a notebook/journal, so this provides further incentive. And I dunno if this qualifies as art or anything, but I really like to doodle. Especially during boring lectures, as it helps me stay focussed on the subject (Science has actually proven that doodling does that, hooray for science!).

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I think he just wanted to be silly.

What a beautiful poem. So wonderfully clear and precise. I really like it.

Same here. Using Firefox.

I kind of second that. Reading it right now. The introduction is absolutely amazing in my opinion. It really helps to put everything into perspective.That's why I actually think that the book, or at least the introduction, might be very useful for beginners. But not in terms of extracting any practical methods, but just to get a good overview and be able to contextualize the other sexual literature. The introduction also contains a discussion about Chia's and Chang's book, which I found very valuable. It is however, a rather scholarly book, so be aware of that.

I think it is about time the the Taoist tradition finally starts to recognize the greatest Taoists of our time, one of the greatest Taoists of all time actually: Super Mario - This man has saved kingdoms countless times, yet to somebody meeting him on the street, he would appear to be a normal working-class guy. He obviously knows how to "hide his light" - Despite the fact that the princess keeps getting kidnapped all the time, he never ever struggles with his role in life and accepts the things the way they are. - By letting the player control his actions and never ever interfering with that, he is able to perform great feats. Action through non-action at its best! And anyone who has ever seen this guy jumping around and doing his thing can attest to the obvious effortlessness with which he performs his tasks. - He could probably do any job in the world (race driver, tennis player etc.) yet he chooses to live his life as a simple plumber. He is a great example of humility to us all. - He can throw fireballs that would make even John Chang jealous. - By eating mushrooms he can grow in size. I don't know what kind of crazy external alchemy this is, but this man obviously knows his stuff. - He rides a dragon (Yoshi) and freely traverses the galaxies. - He seems to have died countless times, yet he still is alive. A true immortal.

Great post, thanks for that! :-) Even though I am far away from what you seem to be able to see in a person's eyes, I have also noticed how the difference in brightness seems to say a lot about the person. I think the difference is particularly striking if you look into the eye's of older people. You can really tell who, well, just got old and who is still full of life/vitality "despite" their age. On the other side of the spectrum, young children/babies almost always seem to have very bright/clear eyes. Same here. I have noticed that I often tend to look into a person's eyes for quite a long time, especially if that person is a woman . It happens more or less automatically and sometimes people are a bit freaked out by that, but at least the people closer to me seem to have got used to it. (seem to have got used to it. Is that correct English? Sounds awkward,)

Pretty much the right words at the right time for me. Very inspiring post! Thank you for that. :-)

Depends. I don't really differenciate between breakfast foods and non-breakfast foods, so I'll often eat whatever is left from the day before. What I probably eat most often for breakfast are lentils & rice, with some cumin and perhaps some cinnamon. Quite simple, but it does the trick for me.

Wouldn't that be more like: 3 am in his recommendation = 4 am during the summer semester?

So, can this only be used for getting back to sleep, or for falling asleep in general (haven't read it yet), as this is the only aspect I sometimes have some troubles with.

Ahh, okay, now I see what you meant. This is actually a bit more complex than I made it out to be, thanks for addressing that. So, basically my thought was, that if grass grows faster it obviously produces more biomass per period of time. So if we assume that every gram of grass fixes a certain amount of carbon (actually the correct term is fixing carbon and not carbon dioxide, isn't it? I mixed that up) than it would logically follow that there is more carbon fixed overall. Why is that? Shouldn't a longer blade of grass when it is left alone fix more carbon than a shorter blade, even if that one regrows very fast? I don't think so. When you just look at the baseline metabolism a longer blade will obviously need more carbon dioxide than a short one. But I don't think that baseline metabolism is what counts here. After all, all that carbon dioxide that is absorbed through photosynthesis (or most of it) will return to the atmosphere at night, when the plant is "breathing". So the only time a plant will actually fix carbon and not "emit" it back to the atmosphere is when it is using that carbon for structural needs, growth, repair and so on. And a faster growing (and re-growing) blade of grass will obviously do better at that. That's my take at least. Back to your other two arguments: 2.) You are right about that. We have much more need for reforestation than we have for pastures. Trees certainly shouldn't make room for pastures, I completely agree with you there. But even a natural environment is not completely made up of ultra-dense forests (depending on which part of the planet you are living on, obviously). So there will always be some places where cattle naturally fits in. That certainly won't be enough to "procude" the amount of meat that is consumed currently, but that can only be a good thing in my opinion. Overall, people really should reduce their meat consumption. But that does not mean, that there are no sustainable, eco-friendly ways to procuce meat. 3.) Yes, but keep in mind that those measurements have probably been made with grain-eating cows. There are people who say that cows only pass so much methane, because they are being fed a food, they can't properly digest and that grass-eating cows only pass a fraction of that amount of methane. However, I can't back that claim up scientifically (but it does sound sensible to me).

Oh, and before I continue, two more additions to 1): a) Actually, you really can't compare some random patch of grass with pasture. That patch has usually been left alone for YEARS. Of course it's gonna be much denser than most pastures, even if the grass on there is growing only half as fast. b ) Also, in my village, there is a pasture, if you can call it that, with a lot of thick grass and bushes and trees and all that. It looks like a very natural environment more than anything and in my opinion, that is exactly how cattle is supposed to be kept.