Jadespear

...look into the book "Taoist Yoga" : https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/taoist-yoga-alchemy--immortality_charles-luk/297106/item/5255171/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=us_shopping_zombies_hvs_21811042479&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=717415192734&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADwY45hQCW-K8eSzaSBTOEWDnwrAS&gclid=CjwKCAjwwLO_BhB2EiwAx2e-39QLefe47JPnZwK0TngFVSrnRYHIhKG6vEOqRNRcMl6kNTngLwtYLRoCYpEQAvD_BwE#idiq=5255171&edition=2578262 All explained in there, pretty comprehensive. I've never done it, because I think it's too dangerous without knowing someone to guide you as there are MANY cases of people FAILING and Really causing harm to themselves because of improper understanding. As noted from the ending stages - when you (the practitioner) cannot be moved for days on end and require the aid of others to sustain yourself. These kind of practices are not for lay people, nor anyone who doesn't have the time (years) of understanding and attempting them. Please don't be convinced by anyone that the internal world is not extremely sensitive and nuanced - and is not really meant to be turned into an experiment. There is a difference between experimentation and true mysticism/magical practices (whatever you want to call it) that deal with the unseen forces. Experimentation is very risky, knowledgable practice is less risky.

Not really missing any differences no... sorry you have to take it all so literal, as if metaphysics is akin to reductionist mathematics. Its not. Totally fine for buddhists to believe whatever they want, as again - thats part of life...everyone has the self evident truth of freewill to do and believe whatever they want. Because they are "themselves". Ahem. This thread was started to ask about absolute truths, not relative ones. The domain of the absolute is what philosophers and people here like to speculate onto based on relativity and many other things... your line of reasoning lacks any experience really at all to prove your assertions. All just intellectual rationale. You're claiming to know what happens to a person when they die? Have you died? Then how do you know? You don't. The sooner you stop talking like you know anything, and the quicker you start meditating - the faster you will learn. No divine essence huh? How do you know? I can't see emotions, but I feel their reality. Your denial based on what you want to be true is ridiculous at best. Yet still - the concept of "no-self" is present within buddhism.... wonder why? No-self is the same as divine essence. What do you think empowers yourself to even be able to think? Intelligence does...it's what you are. You don't "have it" per se, because "you are it". It is there, it is you, it is the no-self. The concept of no-self seems to be drawn in direct contrasting distinction to the idea of duality as an absolute condition of ones being. Said another way, because everyone thinks about themselves all the time and has the working idea of how they experience the entirety of life as a separate individual from everything else, they must be reminded or introduced to the idea that they are "not-selves" as their true nature. This is because - it is true. You are not a separate being living a myopic existence completely independent from everything else - thats a fact. If you exist as anything - it's a fact. Just like water in the ocean is part of the ocean in the relative duality understanding from the part to the whole, but in reality - there is no separation as the ocean is water everywhere - its absolute (non-dual). The essence of whatever you want to call the real you.... the purusha (from samkhya), or the supreme ultimate (taoism)...does exist. It's a fact. Thats what buddhists call the no-self. Just not the normal everyday self people identify as... If you don't believe me, fine - go do what every other sage ever did - and look within to see what is there beyond duality, beyond thought, Hidden deep within. Why else do you think people have proclaimed this throughout all of human history? Your limited view of the aggregates or (elements) isn't enough to dispel the absolute truth of your original nature or the (ground) from dzogchen. The elements themselves are also absolute in how they function... There are many things absolute.

... without experiencing what you actually are, this line of thinking is just intellectual speculation - which is like guessing, bereft of actual knowledge. What buddhists claim as the "no-self" is the just the same as what hindus call the purusa, or eternal energy that enables your existence - the underlying intelligence or "shining self" expounded on at length in the Vedic Upanishads. It is without personality, hence the term "no-self" is used. Taoists call it the "tao"... as in - "the tao is hidden deeply in all things.". It all means the same thing - it is the literal quality of God that makes you alive. Your "spirit" if you will. Your personal consciousness / personality is the literal storehouse and continued expression of all impressions/habits mental, emotional, and physical that you have ever experienced/reinforced/aspired to in every lifetime you have lived, including this one - these are stored and make up what occultists call the "mental body". The mental body survives physical death and retains its qualities. There is no grand lesson to learn, beyond living. People who claim that life has some common goal I don't believe. If it did, how come no one knows what it is? The purpose of life, is to live life, to live your own life, nothing more. There are those who develop appreciation for all life has to offer and in so knowing that, find spreading joy and happiness as a reason to live... joy and happiness through truth, knowledge, courage, and volition - about esoteric subjects and also in sensational pleasures, eating, drinking, creating things, etc. The doctrine of karma gets a bad wrap really...all to often is used to encourage people to be good, which isn't bad per se, is very good. However - karma is just the relationship of cause and effect, and morality is a two-fold judgmental proposition. Nothing is actually good or evil, everything simply occurs due to the working of the law of karma. Ones fate and destiny across lifetimes and in the present one is the outcome of the working of karma. However - all people are free-willed and can change their future at any moment. Hence, the law of karma is not infinite to a final /fatalistic end, but is dynamic and perpetual according to oneself/ones state of being, motion and desire. There are a few books on these subjects if you really want to learn about them. I would caution that many current understandings about philosophy from thousands of years ago are misunderstood and mistranslated. Case in point - the entire Buddhist position. Properly translated in Tibetan - the first noble truth taught by the buddha Gautama means this: "Life is like a wheel that does not sit correctly on its hinge." Far from the whole "life is suffering" position people for whatever reason came to say and espouse. So - going back to the real translation - what does it mean? It means "life is uncertain"... none of us know what will happen tomorrow...not too life altering is it? Hahaha. Furthermore - the entire idea that people are supposed to escape life existence that comes from the improper understanding is entirely eliminated. Because that makes no sense at all. Thats why there is no grand goal, beyond whatever you want your life to be. We're all just temporary forms of the divine, expressing our nature as humans.