Why is it so hard for humans to believe that it took time for their species to develop? Why are people content believing that they are nothing more then the manifestation of dust in a 24 hour period? Hey i say let people believe what they want to believe. The truth is always going to be the truth regardless of our petty human beliefs. No sense wasting time arguing about. Frankly i think we have more important things to do.

"Do we have the right to say we are a civilized decent society and people? I will turn that around -- what truly civilized decent society would deny its members the right to determine their own desires and needs?"

I would have to respond that first off there is a clear distinction between a desire"want" and a "need". Needs are strictly defined as something essential to survival or ones existence. Having a girlfriend is never a "need" and therefore not subject to a inalienable right. Im am simply questioning people's justification of their "wants" and desires in another person as "needs" and a reason to discriminate other human beings.

I would have to agree that in a ideal world that people just clicking as it were is preferable to natural selection but the question still remains. How do we as enlightened and intelligent beings have the right to say we are above such primitive biases when people's behavior as a whole says otherwise?

A thought began to occur to me as I have began reflecting on my participation in dating sites like Mingle. What are people really looking for? What are the standards they have when looking for someone to date? What qualities rule people out as an option?
Like i said in a previous blog concerning euegenics I have began to get the impression that these standards people have may be something of shallow in nature. My question to you all is what is acceptable when ruling people out as a potential match? Age? Race? Height? Weight? Education? Health? Employment? Seriously now, what in your opinion allows us as far as standards go to have the right to still say we are a civilized decent society and people? Or is it really as simple as natural selection, where the strongest and "best" are the only ones fit for selection? Just curious if I am wasting my time?

A thought began to occur to me as I have began reflecting on my participation in dating sites like Mingle. What are people really looking for? What are the standards they have when looking for someone to date? What qualities rule people out as an option?
Like i said in a previous blog concerning euegenics I have began to get the impression that these standards people have may be something of shallow in nature. My question to you all is what is acceptable when ruling people out as a potential match? Age? Race? Height? Weight? Education? Health? Employment? Seriously now, what in your opinion allows us as far as standards go to have the right to still say we are a civilized decent society and people? Or is it really as simple as natural selection, where the strongest and "best" are the only ones fit for selection? Just curious if I am wasting my time?

Keep in mind the chinese calendar is based off lunar cycles as well as the 28 years it takes saturn to orbit the sun. Next to the Mayan it is far mor acurate then any of our western calendars. Most of western calendars are based off eliptical cycles. There 356 days, 23 hours, 18 minutes and 56 seconds roughly if i remeber right in a year. A year being the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun once, feel free to correct me if these are not the exact numbers but if my memory from my high school physics class has not fogged over they indeed are if not close.

Morning having free will means we(humans) are entitled and expected to question things. This means questioning everything including "God". Dismissing the question on the basis that it would mean questioning somebody who knows better than us and make them angry is utter nonsense. If the said being or diety really does know better then us they have a responsibilty to be able to at least explain things as well as themselves. If you don't want to be questioned common sense dictates that you don't give a species free will.

People in genral regardless of faith or religion admire virtue, sacrifice, kindness and generousity. They also tend to devote themselves to symbols, be them human or diety becuase they embody qualities they admire and wish to aspire towards. That is my thought on it.

I would like to know why it is it has to be men or women would started and devoloped communication and language. Honestly people communication is a vital survival skill that every species develops. Both men and women developed it as a faculty of survival and co-dependence. This battle of the sexes nonsense is ignorant and if we had this much contention between man and woman back then,civilization would have never happened.

Lieh-Tzu and Lao-Tzu are my top two.

Actually funches love is a concept which indicates emotional attachment. One can be "attached emotionally" to someone they have never met past, present and future. Example: Do you admire Lincoln or Kennedy as a president? A lot of people would answer yes. Even if they never met lincoln or kennedy their admiration is no less real. If i say i respect everyones opinion and i mean it that means everyone past, present and future. That respect is no less real just becuase i will never meet everyone. The only time their is delusion in making such statements is if the individual you admire has not ever existed. I am sorry funches but your wrong on this one. So unless you can provide proof Christ never existed you have no right to go around calling people delusional for their devotion to someone they have never met.
Just so there is no confusion on how love is defined here:
Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection[1] and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction. The word love is both a verb and a noun. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love[2] to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.[3] Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Ja ne!

In a sense what your trying to note is the dual nature of things in existence. Everyone does indeed share the same potential for better or for worse depending on the perspective from which all things are viewed. The potential remains the same for both regardless of whether a choice is viewed as good or evil. A good choice is a good choice from some other point of view it is an evil choice. The same is true of evil choices, it is good to some and evil to others. The real question is who or what sits in judgement of these choices if they are even judged at all by anyone other then mankind.

Actually Kozee there are some distinct differences from Eft and eastern methods. In the west the term,"energy psychology" still stinks of "this is all in our heads and therefore not a part of reality." As a Taoist I am of the belief that the energy that is worked in these systems is a part of total human reality. That is to say it applys to body, mind and soul as a whole. If you say that it is the same thing then i would say putting western terminology on a clearly eastern concept is just salad dressing and dis-respects the origins of these systems. I can certainly understand you wanting to put these concepts in terms more platable to a western mind but the terms you are using by definition dismiss critic concepts that embody these systems. Another western concept you are using is the "idea of how fast a system works." This screams of a western mindset, wanting everything here and now rather then growing and developing it. I won't debate with you about speed becuase i am more focused with quality and long term results. just something to think about next time you claim we have bridged east and west. The terminology is of a western mindset and chooses to ignore vital eastern concepts by difinition alone. just something to think about...

Let us begin on how Chi/Qi/Ki/Primal universal energy works. First lets go back to basic bio-chemistry. How does the body get the energy it needs to sustain itself? Where does the ten ohms of electric current come from that the nervous system runs off of? Why does the human body emit an electromagnetic field? The western scientific answer is energy. Our body breaks down everthing into nutrients, vitamins, sugars, proteins and minerals. These are then in turn converted by bio-chemical reactions in the body into said energy. All these methods are about manipulating that energy to improve health and well-being, thus the reason it is associated with chinese medicine which is still years ahead of western medicine IMO. Western science and medicine tends to disregard this energy becuase it is diffucult to provide the energy in the form of physical substance which can then be scrutinized and poked at it. The fact is even science has to admit there is a source of energy that powers the human body. Just because they can't measure it and put it on the periodic table does not mean that it is not there. These people tend be sensory based in their perceptions and philosophies about what is real. Now as to those sources you requested:

http://www.tai-chi-fitness-for-health.com/tai-chi-health-healing-evidence.html

http://www.reflexology-research.com/scientific_evidence.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/tai_chi/page2.htm

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192882/Tai-Chi-QigongEnergy-Scientific-Experimentation

That should help you.......

the meaning of a word, be it God, a divinity, supreme being or creator does not aid anyone in arguing for against its existence. The very word existence is subjective. Some say in order for something to exist it needs nothing more then to be an idea and concept. So then the real question becomes are we the created, the creator, or the created of the creator which we created? Most people tend to behave that thinking about such states of existence is to complicated. Since this makes things even harder for them to explain much less understand they dimiss it's existence in favor of a much simplier form of explanation for all of existence. The problem for these people is things can never just be. They have to have a reason or explanation for things and sadly this results in a vicious cycle of needing more reasons and explanations to explain their reasons and explanations. In the end they entrap themselves into not being able to question the said need becuase the need depend on the reason and explanation which in turn depends on the need that is in question. The problem that arises from this way of thinking in people is it then has to become one or the other. It has to exist or it does not exist. It can never just be which is both as one in the same. This is why a Taoist would say this to the question. Its lack of existence creates the need to exist and becuase it then exists it has to bring its existence into question and therefore does not exist. It is this very absence that required a presence to exist so that its absence could be understood. This is the Taoist story of creation. The Tao also called Wu chi and the void because of the need of its non- existence to exist divided and became yin and yang. These divided and created the greater and the lesser. These divided and became the eight trigrams and then 64 and unto the 10,000 myriad things that make up the entire universe.

You struck an interesting note there abra. Taoism finds its roots in early eastern tribal shamanism. As Chinese society developed the virtues and beliefs cultivated by that shamanism or Magick devoloped into the philosophical foundations of Taoism. I can only speak for myself when it comes to how i have choosen practice Taoism. What you call taoist magic is what i believe to natural, being of the nature of creation and the Tao. I practice Wu Wei becuase it is what is natural. The western word magic tends to fail in my view of addressing what it really means to follow the Tao. The word magic today stirs up ideals of illusion, trickery and mystery. None of those contexts are apporiate when addressing the mystical aspects of simply what is. It is only mystical when we try to explain it. Things done in accordance with the the Tao are natural and a essential part of everything, the universe, life, death and what i call fundamental truth. The truth is natural and it just is. The spiritual/philosophical practices of the Taoist are an effort to return to the Tao. In western terms it is a path to the source for lack of better words. My view of it is that by practicing Taoist Internal Alchemy and adhereing to the principles and virtues of the Tao i will be able to leave behind the karmic cycles of death and rebirth, merge with the truth,source,essence and return to the void and the Tao. I believe that you are right in the aspect that it seems this is the natural inclination of every human being, find the divine as it were, build temples, find enlightenment, seek to better ourselves. It is in the code or nature of things as some of my friends would say. Something every human shares regardless of faith, belief, and philosophy. We all share the same story of that desire for truth, understanding and wisdom. just my thoughts though....

Will and intention are the roots anyone's power. The ability to make a choice is the law, meaning that there is a decision, action and reason behind everything. It does not discriminate and is therefore just and equal in its rewards and punishiments. No need has ever existed to define what is right or what is wrong. People see bad things happening to them or others and feel that is wrong and therefore will and intend to change and or prevent it. Those who do not will it or make intentions about it are the ones who prevent it. Don't get me wrong i am not speaking of apathy. I am speaking to true nature of creation and reason for things. Choice, intentions, reactions, cause and effect only occur becuase it is willed to be so. It is the whole of the law or fundamental make up of the universe becuase it encompasses all law. A better wording might be " As it willed so shall it be. " or in laymens terms, You shall harvest what you plant, pray that man has the wisdom not to sow seeds of destruction.

The date itself may not in and of itself be what is important. In chaos there is order. In death there is life. Just going on simple old intuition and empathy if when you think of the date and the "shivers", what is your response to your thoughts of your sister. If the thought of her presence calms you and gives you solace then i would have to conclude that she is trying to let you know that in times of need, concern or dispair that she will be at your side.
Sometimes such assurances are needed. You seek to see or find reason and understanding why Feb. 10 is important? Why should you sisters word of a visit at such be a cause of concern, fear or alarm as indicated by the shivers? That is your real question, one that addresses the fundamental truth the unknown. As pagan you very faith is about questioning and exploring the unknown. The best advice i can give you simply this: Having a reason for your question: What is important about Feb 10? will never reveal to you the truth you seek to understand. That truth can only be realized once you accept whatever may come on that date both your sister and the answers will be waiting. A question sometimes itself needs to be questioned. Will knowing anything about that date make any difference to you and your sister now as much as it will have in meaning and signifance when you experience and discover what it means when it happens? I know it sounds like i am speaking in riddle but i trust you will understand it when you need to understand it. I hope that helps.

Snap!!!! sometimes it takes an outside voice to clarify things,,,thanks jean. I had been hitting the mark with the I-Ching and Tarot Counsels for others in the last month, but when i would go to do my own the confusion i would feel afterwards felt like a brick wall. A choice to made. strange dreams, things in motion that i could not see. I had all these pieces but i couldn't form the picture till today. I'll try to explain by showing how everything came together. As you know i live in a nursing and this frustrates me to no end. A life of seclusion,stagnation and isolation. These were all in the cards but the confusion festered in the layouts when the cards would suggest a choice or realization to be made and events in motion that i had no control over or did not understand. I had been having vivid dreams about meeting with people, a female sculptor, a what looked like a 16th century cartographer, a group of crafters, people whose trades were art and creation. Carrying on conversations with these individuals like we had known each other my entire life, then it would hit me, wait where am i and who are you? The second i had that thought the reality i was experiencing was slipped away like a whispher. I would awake to find myself grasping for details that just instant before that were so vivid and clear. Names, places, things i read and other very specific details were gone but the feelings, thoughts and personifications were still there. There was an urge welling up but i did not know what it was. I felt i needed to get out and clear my head, so some my friends Carol and Josh offered to let me hang out with them for a couple days if i helped them move some furniture. My friend carol suddenly decides we should go to hobby lobby. She had easel given to her by her father and with brushes but lacked the paint. So i went with them to offer my aid and advice about painting and the supplies she was selecting. The next day we watched a documentary we found on netflix about a four year old abstract painter named Marla. It was a documentary called my daughter can paint that. Just stumbled across it you might say when we were scrolling through selections off netflix. We move the furniture last night and went out to buffalo wild wing s for dinner and to play video texas hold em poker. The number seven kept appearing in the flop and even in pairs. The worst you hand you can play in the game is when you have a seven and two as your cards. Yet here if anybody had those cards they would be getting three or four of a kind and in one hand it would have been a full house with three sevens and a pair of twos. The icing on the cake came when a couple of the girls running the bar were asking all us guys playing what we do for a living and were flirting with guys to get them to order more drinks from them. They got to me and said, " You must be the shy, quiet silent type out of the group. Seven guys up here playing poker and your the only one not drinking or talking. So what is your story, what do you do for a living?" In a moment of blatant frustrated honesty i replied, " Nothing and I live in a nursing home and don't drink becuase i am very sick." Their response summed every females response to that kind of honesty, " Really? Oh ok." So i had been sitting up nite thinking about all this when i decided to check the forums. Seven of Cups like a slap in the face. It all just came together. Every word you said sums it up perfectly. All the pieces fit. My want to honest and open through art and the desire in me to want do an art show. It was my deepest need to express, create and share my entire life. Ironically since i was diagonsed at the age of seven with diabetes i have felt repressed and it drove me to the arts as an outlet. It was under my nose the whole time, I have been needing to do this. I had to empty my cup to see the desired that needed to be filled. My need to get out there, share and let people see what i see through my art. I hope i don't sound like jim carrey did in the number 23 movie. But its been there all along, right there in front of me. It is the realization of it all, all the elements, numbers, the pieces and events. Chaos that has a design, the truth that i have been seeking, desiring to express has been in play all along, both a part of me and manifesting itself in way i could have never imagined myself saying i would have the evidence to show.