XiShuangBanNa 西双版纳, YunNan province

Relive the amazing scenes from August 8th 2008 ...

'Battle Masters Beijing'. The second film is from a pairs contest in Germany, 2011.

With Gecko Walks ...

10,000 pearls of wisdom; when follow The Way, it is one pearl. The truths found in the Tao Te Ching are universal and timeless. A book of wisdom written by a sage named Lao-Tzu / Lao Zi, circa 500 BC, China. Read by the late Wayne Dyer ... The audio as well as the translation of the version you hear is from a book called Living The Wisdom of The Tao: Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer. His book includes a detailed commentary on each of the verses ...

With Daniel Dumbrill ... 'None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free' — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. More generally, belief is the end of truth - BB. In the West, slavery never ended - it became the whole flock. Metal chains were replaced by mental chains. 'Mind control' - control the people by controlling what they 'know'. The 'cold war' is an info war. Simply look at what is being done rather than what is said is being done. Else a firewall will be constructed in your mind, beyond which you cannot see reality. In China, the people are family. In the West, the people are merely livestock, to benefit the elite. This really is not a wild exaggeration - it is the truth and the real reason for the cold war - elite rule versus everyone should prosper and be happy. The idea that 'all lives matter', is the threat to neo-feudalists, who wave slogans of freedom and human rights and democracy, while redistributing wealth to themselves.

WARNING - graphic. The real, deeply ugly face of the hysterical, baying mob of rioters behind their masks. Just one example ...

With Dr. Sten Ekberg. Don't miss it ...

On Myanmar - with The New Atlas ... On Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba - with the Moderate Rebels ... On Central America, Biden ... On Australia - with Geopolitics In Conflict... On XinJiang and the Uyghurs - with Pivot to Peace / Professor Ken Hammond ... On Hong Kong ... On Julian Assange ... On the post-western world - with Martin Jacques ... With YChina re the New York Times ... With Daniel Dumbrill ...

Small office, home office (SOHO); but with friends and colleagues. GuangZhou, GuangDong province ... BeiJing hutongs ...

Widescreen remix ...

GuangDong province. With Walk East ...

Near LuoYang, provincial capital of HeNan, central China. There is a LaoZi Cultural Park near the foot of the mountain and a cable car is available to reach the top. The ancient sage LaoZi (in modern PinYin though one will still also see Lao-Tse or Lao-Tzu) who started Daoism (Taoism) and authored the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), is said to have gained inspiration here around 550 BC. The Dao (道) which roughly translates as 'the way', in the sense of how things are, is a concept that existed in Chinese thought many centuries before LaoZi, but it was LaoZi who developed the concept considerably. Wu Wei (無爲), literally "non-action" or "not acting", is a central concept of the DaoDeJing. The concept of wu wei is multi-faceted, and reflected in the words' multiple meanings, even in English translation; it can mean "not doing anything", "not forcing", "not acting" in the theatrical sense, "creating nothingness", "acting spontaneously", and "flowing with the moment / 'here and now'". It is a concept used to explain ZiRan (自然), or harmony with the Dao. LaoZi used the term broadly with simplicity and humility as key virtues, often in contrast to selfish action. On a political level, it means avoiding such circumstances as war, harsh laws and heavy taxes. The 'ruler' can also refer to the 'self'. There is an overlap here with the Buddha's teachings that suffering stems from attachments and desires, ultimately to the notion of a separate self. In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang (陰陽 YīnYáng, "dark—light") describes how opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. While duality is found in many belief systems, Yin and Yang are parts of a Oneness that is also equated with the Dao. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts; it is a holistic view. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, though either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. Yin and Yang is a balance between two seeming opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each. Some of LaoZi's famous sayings include: "When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality." "Without Darkness, there can be no Light." "The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness." "The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way." "When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad." "Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it." "Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know." "When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." "A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." "Music in the soul can be heard by the universe." "A journey of a thousand miles starts under one's feet." "The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves there will be." Alan Watts - 'The Daoist Way' ...