From: poore@dirac.scri.fsu.edu (David Poore)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Well, well, well...
Date: 11 Jan 93 16:10:35 GMT
Reply-To: poore@dirac.scri.fsu.edu (David Poore)
Organization: Florida State University

In article <1993Jan7.162042.10370@sei.cmu.edu> psc@sei.cmu.edu (Peter Capell) writes:
>I didn't claim proof.  I claimed that yogis have a defined "practice" and that
>the results of these practices can be measured.  That is, at the very most
>basic level, if you follow yogic practice, including diet, you will at the
>very least reduce blood pressure, and be able to reduce breathing and heart

Pardon me for butting in, I'd like to point out that this is in fact not
unique to eastern traditions. Many older Christian Monastic Orders
certainly had such defined physical practices to compliment their
spiritual practices. Most obvious examples include Jesuits, who had
definite, proscribed meditations and breathing patterns that accompanied
certain prayers. Sound familiar? They also highly favored rigorous
physical exercise and asceticism which was quite similar to some
practices common in the east, as well as dietary restrictions. I am not
a Christian, Peter, lest you cast my opinion onto the same dung heap you
cast those of others upon, but you are misinformed on this particular
aspect of your argument.

Stephen Chan said:
>>	You're going off the rhetorical deep-end on this one, Peter. I refer
>>you to folks like Theresa of Avila, Kant, Spinoza, and Aquinas. They
>>all lived deeply spiritual lives - it wasn't all just talk for them - they
>>claimed to experience their philosophies.
>Anh, yer probably right.  But anyway, each of the philosophers you mention are
>mostly unknown to most people.  And they are in no way represented in the make
>up of our culture.  This is of course also rapidly becoming true in the east

Now this is absolute horseshit. If you in any way think that Kant,
Spinoza, and Aquinas are not respresentative of or partially responsible
for the makeup of our culture, you are grossly misinformed. What is
'our' culture? Are these philosophers represented in European culture?
And what the hell difference is it that most people haven't heard of
them? Most people don't have a clue who Leibniz was either, but was he
insignificant by virtue of that fact?

>>language will be represented to westerners, instead of passively accepting
>>Wade-Giles, or other foriegnly produced system?
>Okay now this I really don't get.  Actually I'm not passively accepting
>anything except that I have never pronounced any word in the English language
>beginning with the letter "Q" with a "ch" sound.  Is this a difficult concept?

You focus on the one glaring 'problem' with Pinyin, yet you ignore the
more numerous problems associated with Yale or Wade-Giles systems. Do
you find it more intuitive to remember the difference between chi and
ch'i or kung and k'ung in Wade-Giles? Why the hell don't they just use a
'g' when they mean a 'g' (like they do in Pinyin) rather than rememberin
that a 'g' sound is really represented by a 'k' which ISNT followed by
an apostrophe? Sheesh, I'd hate to consider your opinion of the
Tawainese if you've ever had to deal with BoPoMoFo.

David Poore
poore@dirac.scri.fsu.edu

Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts