Mudfoot

Thanks. Ordered it. I'm a sucker for "academic and dry".

If I didn't write this from my Phone, I could post a link stating that daoist practices are influenced by tantric traditions. I guess that depends on which tradition you want to be oldest.

The same body, the same lotus position, the same breathing exercises, the same strive for emptiness. No wonder there are similarities.

You might want to check out Sally Goddard Blythe (The Well Balanced Child). You can steal ideas from there.

Practice more. Bagwa, xing yi, taiji, some Shaolin methods. Find one, practice a huge amount for a long time. Then don't.

Most threads here cover aspects of your interest. So, either join in, or formulate a question or a topic a little more clearly. I am sure someone will chime in.

Actually, I smiled at "you get what you pay for", with the implication that if you buy a dream, you get illusion. No. I have read Twickens book (Chia style). Well, I would not mind being equipped with a bag full of interesting abilities. My practice doesn't seem to go in that direction, and I wouldn't quit what I practice, widening my horizons on the other hand...... Maybe I should write a list. 1)My teacher, in a seminar in Sri Lanka, made a man fly back several times just by pointing at him (Ok, they thought he had mental issues, and my teacher have never managed to do this again, but that is beside the point). And there is a video of me, 1999, practicing Lin Kong Jing. I hope you never see that one 🤪 2) My teachers teacher claimed he could see through walls (that would have been useful when I was sixteen). 3) James McNeil claims he saw his 150 years old teacher levitate under the ceiling. I might find a use for that. 4) Damo Mitchell saw a man partially desintegrate before him. Wouldn't that be awesome?

As far as I have seen, Wang Li Ping knew how to extract money out of students. So is that an endorsement? 😁

Interestingly, the xiuzhentu has a different explanation, where the fire is not represented by one of the yin-yang symbols. Considering the fire in the pan below, xiuzhentu might be an adequate reference.

As the joke goes: I wouldn't want to study under a teacher that would accept me as a student 🤪 As for the rest: If I ever find one that can live up to that (remembering that I am a householder with family responsibility so I cannot just uproot myself), I would be delighted.

Who would I trust with my money?

You are describing quite a few who are posting here.

You evil you! You just made me spoil a suite of years of not contributing in any useful way to a nei dan thread. Now I have to start all over.

Lack of formal instruction in Nei Dan.

The kidneys represent water, but within the waters is born an energy, this energy actually consisting of fire;...... But I would only use that to support my already distorted view of my own experiences.

And spoil a good thread?

And at lower levels (mine), fire would feel almost like above, while water would feel cohesive (if I translated that one right). But that would be in a non-daoist frame of reference, and not using these terms as designations for aspects of the mind.

No, but to experience it, in contrast to believe in it.

This is where the Nei dan threads dies. Noone wants to say it out in public, because in an instant someone else will state it is wrong. At best, we will start to quote some Cleary translation, and before you know it mythical creatures (and hopefully not seminal fluid) will fly in the air.

No, we were off topic. Now back again.

He looks old, so he didn't achieve Immortality in his youth?

Unless you prefer your Jing cold. 😁

We left the oceans. We left the trees. We learned to use the pointy end of a stick. It has been downhill since that.

Yes. It's nei dan..... 😁 But who says they are abstract principles? Although used on multiple levels, could it not be that on one level it describes sensations?

Yes, but do they produce "dan"? None, without a method and oral instructions.