in my experience, all information contained in the reid’s book were checked true. first read might not appear interesting if one doesnt experience it.
also reid didnt say eat only raw food, but prefer it, and when the whether is hot. all exess are nefast that’s a point of taoism
although i may be wrong in this case monkey could you give me some other book to enlighten me?
Re: Raw Food
Originally posted by Repulsive Monkey
[B]Too much cold fluid obviously does excatly the same.
[/B]
I guess that explains why my Tai Chi dojo has a warm water dispenser.
Fasting
The Sun Wen quotes that “half a day without food weakens the Qi, a whole day without food depletes the Qi”. In Chinese diets fasting is not considered a good thing, it means that the Gu Qi of the food cannot mix with the Lung Qi to create Zheng Qi which then dissemnitaes into creating both internal organ Qi and the outer Wei Qi to protect the outskirts of the body from external pathogenic invasions (heat,cold,damp,dryness etc.)
There are several good books which are superior to Daniel Reids book even on a simplistic level and at a snip of the price Bob Flaws Imperials Secrets of longevity will point out what Reid hasn’t but if you want something more thorough and detialed then why not borrow (or if you’ve got the money) just by a text book on the whole area of TCM most notably Giovanni Maciocia’s Foundations/Practice of Chinese Medicine.
I do think that Reid’s advocation of Colonic Irrigation is so profoundly against principles of Chinese Medicine and thought that I cannot understand why he included it in his book. It has nothing to do with Chinese Medicine and certainly has nothing to do with Taoism either. Can anyone tell me about Daniel Reids origins and credentials???
The Taoist rule of eating is that there are really no rules.
I think the important thing is to eat how you feel. Take notice of how food effects and how you feel after eating it.
In general, I’d say that martial artists need more protein then your average joe on the street. We work our bodies a lot harder and we need protein to rebuild and recover.
Also, you want to drink plenty of clean water, take a good multivitamin, try to eat a variety of fruits and veggies , emphasize beans and whole grains, deemphasize refined white flour, milk and refined white sugar, avoid heavily processed foods, dies and preservative chemicals.
Everything else is pretty much conjecture. Even some of the stuff I wrote is.
I was a vegetarian for a long time but always felt run down so I started including meat in my diet. Now I feel much more grounded and less tired.
However, someone else might do great on a veggie diet.
You really have to listen to your body.
Taoist Diet
Well there are rules actually. Are you familiar with Taoist Chang Ming diet. It does have rules. Taoism has rules, i.e. ways in which one does not deviate from nature and natural principles. The formlessness is the natural adherence to natural principles and when one realises this they realise that to follow nature is formless and natural hence no more rules needed. In order to deconstruct what we have construceted (i.e. how we have deviated from the Tao) some guidance and advisory means are needed. To undo a not in a piece of rope one must analyse it to a certain extent!
I practice the “internal” (I hate that term) arts.
My sifu - and his sifu - were big time MEAT EATERS. This despite our Taoist influences.
The bottom line was that if we didn’t, we didn’t feel as good and couldn’t train properly.
The internal martial arts, when used combatively, burn a huge amount of calories.
fasting
daniel reid included fasting because its his own experience,
it wasnt included in traditional taoist medicine simply beaucause in the past they didnt need it, for they didnt eat such intoxicating food we eat in modern world
i have always experienced that, when sick, if i fast, i will recover faster, if i more solid food, i will get worse.
Fasting!
You say they didn’t include it in it traditional Taoist teachings. As far as I know they never have and still donn’t include it in their teachings. The Sun Wen is explicit about fasting. Of course less courser/denser foods can be consumed but this still instils Gu Qi being produced in order to initiate the Zheng Qi in the body. Fasting can temporarily be used when their are pathogenic toxins in the dietary tract but these can be expelled through emetic means too.
ge hong
i just find out some reasearch on ge hong saying that fasting was a curent practice for him to cleanse his spirit. he also advocate to stop the intake of grain (like others taoist) to that stage stoping grain for someone who allready dont eat meat is nearly fasting.
now i have a lot of example of indian yogi who remain healthy without eat, because of their mastering of prana (qi)
the aim of taoist in immortallity was to break free from this need and live only on plant, water and qi. i dont think its just metaphoric.
btw what did you mean by emetic means?
Emetic
Emetic is that which causes one to vomit.