Raine

I would read this entire thread but, haven't the energy. Why does it have to be so complex. Tao is intangible yet, it can be experienced and "its" effects obserserved. All of these opposites (good & bad, beautiful & ugly, etc.) are there because we choose to see them in such ways. They are not truths but, perseptions which can also be experienced and the effects of those choices observed. They, being non-truth, thoughts, are also intangable. Truth is found by seeing through our perseptions to some virtue, some faith, that all has equal merit. Afterall, my misfortune today may be my blessing tomarrow, etc.

Before falling asleep

"My dreams heal and balance and nourish my body mind and spirit

by releasing and resolving and dissolving and healing traumas from past lives and this present life."

Thank you too

When I feel overwhelmed by something I'll listen to a guided meditation by Master Chen, his Wu Dang Emotional Peace audio. He's got a very relaxing vibe and old wise man accent .

I like his Morning and Evening 30 minute meditations too. His site is: http://wudangtao.org/

Thank you

Raine,

thank you for your kind words. I haven't thought of blogging things food, but now that you mention it, I'll give some consideration to maybe throwing together in a blog some food-related items from my private discussions. I've pictures 'n all, so I would just have to think of how to organize it all so it's useful for someone, it's pretty eclectic.

 

Stosh,

I believe in a multiverse where all possibilities and potentials of this world are realities of the next -- so maybe there's a timeline where love at first bite IS real!

If you ever want topic ideas/inspiration, let me know. I'd love to see this blog be born. You could just tell stories of it, food stories, and not worry about anything else. You could start with your first experience.

I mostly cook without recipes, but if you are comfortable with imprecise measures (a pinch, a handful, a tad, etc.), just tell me what you fancy and I'll try to tell you how to make it.

 

Let's start with methods and utensils. I don't use anything electrical. No teflon either, or aluminum. It's a wok or a pan for rapid-fire dishes, and an assortment of clay pots (notably a Romertopf) for slow-cooking no-watching-over-it dishes, also heavy enameled cast iron ones for similar purposes but these go on top of the stove rather than in the oven (the choice depends on the season -- I don't use the oven during the summer months, but love to in winter). I own three Chinese cleavers, of which one is a present from a pro and is reputed to be the best in the world. This one cleaver is enough to replace most of kitchen equipment, it can cut and slice anything as though it's a gob of emptiness, grind, flatten, tenderize, mince, even puree. I seldom use anything else, except when I'm making pico de gallo, for which I have a special alligator cutter, and which I like to mix (the pico de gallo, not the cutter) with mashed avocado and sunflower oil and rice vinegar diluted half and half with water (that's Mex-Rus-Asian, technically -- most of my cooking is fusion.) But you can make pico de gallo with an ordinary knife too if you have the patience.

 

I eat some of my foods raw, mostly sashimi. I don't eat grains except when I have a great big craving for tamales, which happens once in a blue moon. I can give you a recipe for my tamales if you like but they do involve what few Americans eat-- pork back lard.

I love the passion you have talking about this. It's an immense enjoyment to read. Have you ever thought to blog? Food blogs are big and you can make a nice chunk of change doing it too!

As for recipes, I'm a decent enough cook. Rough proportions suit me fine, as I usually tweak everything anyway. The only thing measurements are really needed in is baking, though I rarely do that anymore. I don't use grains, seeds, and nuts unless fermented or sprouted but, some wild seeds and grasses are in various sprouted states so those are fine just cooked.

I'm adaptable I just love to learn new things, new approache's. Share what your passions are.

Have a cook off. I was hoping people would share thier recipes on this thread

I'm with you. These are the best, hands down.

 

As for preparation, combinations, particular choices, I'd take one of the two Chinese approaches I've studied. (I've studied pretty much all the rest too, but like the taoist ways best.) One is broadly taoist and comes from my taoist teacher. The other one is a combo of culinary and TCM and comes from many books I've read on the subject. Of the noteworthy ones I would recommend books by Henry C. Lu, which are pretty comprehensive. I would avoid books by Western popularizers (this includes ethnic Chinese who have been educated primarily in the Western nutritional and medical paradigms and prejudices), none of whom can stay away from their own agenda, whatever that happens to be. I also use the food combo chart from the Peasant Calendar, to the extent I can and need to -- it's been published for a couple thousand years unchanged, and some of the items there are impossible to identify today, which is just as well since I've never seen them and neither did most modern Chinese. But others are current -- e.g. not to eat persimmons with shellfish (both are usually on sale at exactly the same time at our local Asian market, so that's noteworthy.) A Chinese friend who happens to be a foodie coming from a long line of foodies translated it for me or identified what he could from the pictures (it's illustrated with drawings, since originally it targeted a largely illiterate population.) If TTB behave, I'll make it public someday.

That would be cool, sounds very intreging. I'll have to expand my research in the areas you've mentioned You've definitely peeked my interest. TY very much.

Hmm, well, its a mix of genetic mutation from dioxin toxicity, chaotic & frightening events as a babe, and a particularly nasty form of conditioning gender roles. Agent Orange + Lunatic Vet Father + parents that sexualize women to the extreme. I ended up with chemical sensitivities, disrupted nervous system from dioxin dioxin toxicity, expressive language disorder, attention deficit disorder,cocognitive disorder, and intimacy issues. That the extreme short of it all but the Agent Orange exposure caused a permanent disruption. I had two sisters. One died at six months and the other was born with Hydrocephalus. Both had disfigured hearts. Two of my daughters and my living sister have scoliosis. All of my kids have ADD and language disorders, as well as chemical sensitivities. Its just a mess to deal with and the gov. still will not recognize what they've caused.

But it's way big! What types of foods are you interested in? There's so many approaches to take -- say, "what are the popular Indian ways to cook lamb," or "what kind of foods help cure diabetes," or "what utensils do you use if you don't have a tandoori oven at home," and on and on. To get a lot of it, you would need to invest a lot of time (years), and to get a little, you would have to specify what's of particular interest to you!

I've invested years. Okay, how about what you were saying in the post above.. what are the best foods and preparations for optimizing chi (any culture). I would choose wild foods, from sea, woodlands and rivers. What about you?

Songtsan, that was incredibly helpful in itself and I do those things, though usually to avoid myself. I will pm you. I don't mind everyone knowing but, I'm just unsure my garbage will be useful to others.

... but, I tell anyone if they ask

Forgive yourself for weakness or anything else that put you in a bad situation, forgive your enviroment the allowed it, forgive whoever caused harm and forgive yourself for not forgiving earlier.

 

Whatever you do I wish you good luck healing.

Thank you

Very good observation.

 

But I will continue that the eternal Tao can be experienced.

 

In this forum and in nearly all other forums that are Taoist based we mostly talk about Te, not Tao. Even trying to talk about the Te of Tao is difficult because we generally look at the universe from our human perspective so we have already put blinders on that prevent us from seeing the true reality of the universe.

Yeah, exactly I was trying to say that. You said it more clearly

No pipes for me. I'm either doin American Spirits or quitting altogether, the latter being preferred.

I know and use all of these in my own cooking. "Not a big expert on things Indian" was a statement fueled by humility, not ignorance. I actually had an Indian food guru from Southern India for several years. He owned a little Indian grocery close to where I lived, and since I was almost the only non-Indian to shop there, he took interest in my interest and eventually started teaching me for real. Not just the mundane stuff like garam masala, but absolutely everything he carried -- amchur to neem to asaphoetida to kachoori methi to guggul to dishes with bitter melon (really tricky!), with extensive lectures on the healing properties of absolutely each and every item by itself and its vast and extensive combinations to achieve other effects. The guy was an encyclopedia and all the knowledge was first hand, from family taught by generations that went before. I made a habit of reserving an hour and a half for shopping there, it was a one-on-one transmission. I could teach Indian cooking because of that... but my palate leans toward China (I mean Chinese food in China, not American Chinese) , Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and oh, Taiwan! The mother of fusion! Don't dis my spirituality, bro, I cook like a pro.

Would you mind putting up recipes and ingredient properties? I'd love to expand my knowledge.

I have to agree, I feel more energized with the spicy spices of india. The only time I cook a meal anymore is making authentic indian foods withthe mindset they put into it, which is unbridled love and care for all that eat of it. The only thing I don't like is thier version os goat stew (too many bones).

thelerner, that's an incredably interesting martini. My son and hubby would love it!

A topic of interest lately, (at least for me and a few others on the board) has been the debate as to whether or not the Tao that is being talked about in the Tao Te Ching is the same throughout, or whether they are different.

 

I will start with my position, which is simply that Chapter 1 clearly states that the Tao that can be talked about isn't the Eternal Tao, hence the Tao being discussed elsewhere is not the Eternal Tao, but rather the Tao that can be described.

 

Have at it... I might recommend citing passages to prove your points, since this thread is talking about it in the context of the Tao Te Ching. That doesn't mean that you can't comment on other texts, just that this is a literary discussion, rather than a free-form philosophical discussion.

 

Aaron

I don't know if it's wise to analyze such a thing to much. Human minds tend to complicate simplicity by creating conceptualized discription, hence why the true Tao is not the Tao that is spoken about. Its all limited by inividual perception, experience, and obsticles in our own ability to be free of preconcieved concept (the basis for cognitive thought snd understanding). Tao is non-cognitive. Its moves beyond the realms of conceptual understanding and is, in itself, expressionless in its full potential of being observed. In other words, Tao is beyond our senses and we only witness it as splinters of realization.

What do you eat (or avoid eating)? What's your diet profile (or ideal diet)? Got recipes?

What does the Taoist, Buddhist, or Spiritual diet consist of?

Awe, a music thread:

Jack white (Recounteurs and White Stripes), Audioslave, Soundgarden, Incubas, Stone Roses, E.S.Posthumas, Tool, System of a Down, Mumford and Sons, Ser Tankian, Pearl Jam, Illumineers, Allice in Chains, Filter, Floater (old friends from youth), Imagine Dragons, Stone Temple Pilots, The Black Keys, and more.

That sounds good! It looks like you have pretty much the diet I came up with when I was researching IBS though I didn't take it as far as it sounds like you have. Have you noticed effects on your depression or GAD yet?

I take the diet so far because my children and I have food and chemical sensitivities that are severe enough to be the cause of " failure to thrive", due to asthma and nausia, confirmed through an elimination diet and an alergy test. Also, hubby has diabetes. Most diseases are metabolic in nature so, its just my holistic approach to things. I have no idea if its helping with GAD though, as mine is a derivative of childhood abuse.

Never use refined or artificial

Yeah I figured. These three things, GAD, depression and irritable bowel syndrome seem to usually coexist. I have some personal experience with this which after some personal research made me dump most grains(cereals) and most artificial sugar from my diet. Wish you the best of luck with this.

Never use refined or artificial sugars and ferment or sprout all grains, nuts, and seeds before processing them myself because my kids are intolerant otherwise. Mostly though, we don't use any of it, nor do we use much animal products besides butter, occasionally. Its pretty much just vegies and leafy greens, friuts and berries, and homebrewed concoctions. We use a lot of fermented, raw or blended plant matter (wild foraged perferably). Because of all this, I dought my diet plays much of a role. Stress, on the other hand, would be cause enough.

Love your use here delicious ... you made me giggle

Intetesting stuff. The difference between using tobacco for spiritual and habitual is moderation, of course. Anything is okay in moderation but, habit forming, addictive or intoxicating substances break down the natural flow, which may serve a purpose in the short run only. Disruption of any sort can cause problems if natural flow ceases entirely. All poisons have medicinal qualities in small doses. Besides, most who overuse (like me) are avoiding things, have some sort of attachment issue, and have a weakened system in general.

Again, I find it funny to be reading this thread while habitually and addictively smoking. I should drink some tea...

Ty OldChi

Hi, regarding panic/depression do you also have stomach problems?

Irrital bowel and systemic yeast that I control through diet, most often.