sillybearhappyhoneyeater

MCO has different meanings depending on which school you follow. Keep in mind that Zhou tian in Daoism refers to the universe, and so the small orbit is the representation of the universe in the body. The big orbit is the actual universe of things. Lu Dongbin said in his poem Qi Yan "the universe moves by itself without the help of any outside source." This tells us a lot about how the xiao zhoutian (small heavenly orbit) works in Daoism. Non action has to be achieved for it to begin opening. The other thing is that it is a gradual process which happens over the course of many years. To achive it, you really have to master non action and action without action, otherwise it will never become unblocked and clear. In terms of using Qi gong to open the orbit, this is a totally different concept, since Qi Gong is using post heaven Qi to wash the orbit, rather than meditation which focuses on pre heaven Qi (actually, this Qi is a totally different Chinese character and has no relationship with the one used in Qi gong). just my 2c

in a nutshell, nei dan is xiantian practice based on wuwei and wu bu wei. qi gong is hou tian practice based on converting post heaven breath into qi which runs through the blood. although qi gong has some xiantian cross over in terms of long term effect on the body, it doesn't develop xiantian qi which can be felt in the way that nei dan does. nei dan also doesn't develop hou tian qi in the same way as qi gong. because you would neither wish to spend the entire day moving (too tired) or at rest (need to get the blood flowing), qi gong and neidan are wonderfully paired practices. I also do cha dao, which is a whole other take on qi. I believe self cultivation practices work along one continuum. my teacher has a saying "wen yi xiu mei," or "culture and arts cultivate beauty." that basically means that we can use culture and the practice thereof to cultivate a better lifestyle. I think the Daoist concept is very universal, and although Neidan is a school within Daoism, it should be treated more like a college at a university than as the entirety of Daoist pracitce. Just reading the classics cna inform us that Daoist thinkers pretty much covered every posisble realm of study available to them at the time they were alive.

I've been doing Zhineng qigong for about a decade, great stuff. Peng's central idea is about not only cultivating the inside of the body, but also the large energy field around the outside of the body. His work is very brilliant and very good for maintaining health and wellbeing.

From a pragmatic point of view, you are in a situation where you are being punched at. You have choices such as: - trying to block or dodge the punch - rolling with the punch as it lands - recovering quickly from the punch - being able to handle the adrenaline dump that comes with being hit - arranging the correct situation under which to either fight or take flight. These things although they do have some superficial relationship with the idea of karma are better arranged according to natural feeling and ability. If you have no experience being smacked around, it will be best to get away as fast as possible. If you are a swat team guy or a seal, you might just move your head slightly and then put your knife into the dude's gut without him even noticing. All of these things have a great deal of relationship with experience, and as such, experience becomes the karmic law of the situation. karma needs to become a pragmatic thing at some point and not a law of spiritual culpability. if you treat karma as cause and effect, when that punch comes flying in, there will have been a reason for it. The way you react to it will be related to your own understanding of the situation and ability to respond to it. A great deal of this is wrapped up in responding rather than reacting. spirituality should be practical rather than superstitious, karma is the practical application of cause.

Thelemer, sure, I primarily studied with Yang Hai in Montreal (www.internalstyle.com) who studied with Cao Zhenyang at white cloud temple Beijing in the 80s and 90s. He also studied San Feng Pai in Tianjin and learned Daoism from multiple other people all over China. I have also been to Taizhong to meet a practitioner named Weichen shanren who has certified my practice as being legitimate (he was cool, he could send heat and qi through my dantian and ren/dumai. very unusual). My main practice is in translating and interpreting texts from Jin Dan Pai (Lu Dongbin especially), Zhong Pai (Huang Yuanji and Xingming guizhi), and Confucian, as well as Neo Daoist and Neo Confucians texts such as Li Ji, Zhu Xi, Wang Bi and so on. I'm very Neidan oriented although I also do martial arts and tea ceremony. I only do Qigong sometimes, but have a deep respect for all self cultivation methods. My personal approach to Neidan is extremely wu wei oriented and most strongly derived from Huang Yuanji's book Dao De Jing Chan Wei, as well as the general principles and ideas of Lu Dongbin, and Cheng Yingning. I don't practice religious ceremony, but I respect it as fundamental to the practice of any person who calls themselves "Daoshi." I am not Daoshi, and I principally learned from normal people who practice Neidan at a high level. Hope that gives some insight into my background

Daoist texts: thanks for pointing that out! mooninite: the book only goes to the level of yuan jing practice, it is mainly geared toward beginners and intermediate level folks. It does have quite a bit of material about how the mind manifests while cultivating yuanjing and how the mind and xuan men interact during meditation. in a future book I'll be covering things like "dong che," (when the perenium begins to move and the yinqiao clears), connecting the ren and du mai, zhong mai, and so on. I think covering the basics first is a good idea, as I don't want readers to get led off in complicatated directions.

Hi all, thanks for the good feedback. I'll ask my publisher if he can free up a couple pages to look at. He's in manilla seeing his Silat master right now, so we may have to wait a few days.

If we want to look at how laozi discussed xing and ming, I think the best thing to do is first try to understand exactly what xing and ming mean in alchemical texts. We can see early on the Zhong Lv Daoism didn't make much use of the terms, preferring to use cocnepts like kan and li and dragon and tiger to discuss the same ideas. uf we look at xing and ming as a concept, it really took off after Quanzhen Daoism had already existed for several generations. The concept of xing ming which is defined as xing being essence and ming being life is not as clear as the concept that xing is representative of the real mind, while ming is the result of the use of the real mind to cultivate elixir. although the mind is held in non action, the end result is that non action gives birth to "zhen yi," or real mind. This is the point at which action without action occurs. This is also how xing and ming interact. The use of the word of xing as "nature" in this case refers to the genuine concsiousness of the person being there, rather than their thoughts. Ming is something that we use the real mind to develop. Lv Dongbin referred to these things in many different ways, but especially as fire and water. Xing being fire and ming being water. If we view the term ming men in its Chinese medicine reading, we can also see that it is representative of the kidneys, again which is a water element. fire is representative of the heart, which is the centre of emotions in Chinese cosmology. the marriage of kan and li is how xing and ming develop from each other. What we are forgetting to add here is "lu ding," or the furnace stove, which refers to the dantian (in general, not only the LDT). the marriage of mind and emptiness, fire and water, xing and ming, dragon and tiger (yuan jing and yuan shen) are all part of the same concept. The key that holds these concepts together is wu wei. huang yuanji said "the practicioner must start from the extreme of quiet respectfulness and cultivate a reality without beauty or good. This seems to be the root of xiulian ( refining and smelting)." This is also the root of the concept of xing ming. Laozi didn't talk about this stuff because laozi wasn't a Daoist in the Quanzhen scheme of things. It is useful to consider that each epoch of Chinese history came complete with a social and world view that was quite different. Even just a flip through zhu Xi's commentary will show you how different his ideas were from Wang bi, even though they are only a few hundred years apart. What laozi set as the foundation (or zhou yi or whatever) has gradually become what it is today. An ongoing tresure which is discovered again and again by each generation. cibei cibei!!!!

I'm less of a dipshit than I used to be, but that could just be age creeping up on me. My teacher told me the most beautiful story: when he was in his early thirties, he experienced a serious tragedy and began to look inward and withdraw. He had studied previously with Cao Zhenyang at white cloud temple and had done a great deal of research about Nei Dan. When he encountered a major loss in his life, he decided to follow through with his childhood dream of becoming a sage. For several years he practiced assiduously, gave free medicinal help to people in need, and lived like an urban hermit. He told me that eventually he realized that his personality was prone to judgement and that he was probably not going to become a saint, but that during his training he had managed to change some important aspects of his personality. He had gone from being an extreme introvert to being able to socialize freely with others, and he had gained a sense of common feeling for other people, which I personally believe was the beginning of compassion. He said even though he never became a saint, his big hope was that he could at least become a good person. Now he shares his learning with many people and helps people in many different areas of life. He is my hero and I very much look up to him (incidentally, his heroes are Nelson Mandela and Ghandi). I think that is one of the better results that I've heard of people acquiring through Daoist practice

http://theteakings.com/880/ this article is one I wrote recently about why people drink tea, historical trends, the effect of tea on the human body and mind, and its relationship with Chinese history. It has relevence to Daoism because it talks in some depth about how tea interects with the physiology of the body and brain, and what kind of effect it has on the consciousness.

Laozi's message should be viewed as a whole, otherwise it would have been issued as multiple texts, rather than one document. In the end, there are historical records showing that there was a person in the Zhou dynasty who was a state librarian and was said to have compiled the DDJ, this has a number of historical sources confirming it. If we want to take the other tack though and assume that the DDJ was written by multiple people, or at least was altered throughout many generations (which is obviously true, given that there are at least five common interpretations of the book from the Mawangdui onward), then we should look for all commonalities. Most importantly, historical commonality of interpretation. It is not possible to ignore the fact that Laozi was followed by zhuang, Yu, Li Zi and so on, all of whom advocated a way of government non interference as a way of administering a peaceful nation. There are no parts of the Dao De jing which recommend supression of truth, but instead, they advocate supression of speech. I would reference you again to 絕聖棄智，民利百倍；絕仁棄義，民復孝慈；絕巧棄利，盜賊無有。此三者以為文不足。故令有所屬：見素抱樸，少私寡欲。 which is not about teaching the baixing, but about the way that the governer adminsters his own actions. "discard sageosity, abandon wisdom, people benefit 100 fold. discard compassion (clearly a reference to Confucius hao ren zheng qi), abandon righteousness (Confucius again), the people will return to viewing you as a father (Xiao Ci: fillial/maternal love), discard cleverness abandon benefit, no thieves or fraudsters exist. these three in words are not enough. consider how many decrees are issued. meet simplicity, embrace plainness, less personal goals, fewer desires." So we are talking about an already developed system based on confucian values which was established before Laozi. This order of things views relationships as being proscribed rather than natural. Laozi views relationships as returning to nature and thus improving. another example of this is 大道廢，有仁義；智慧出，有大偽；六親不和，有孝慈；國家昏亂，有忠臣。 when the way is gone, compassion and righteousness rule, there is great hypocracy. when the six family members are out of accord, there will be filial piety (liu qin, father mother son daughter, grandfather, grandmother), when the country is in turbid violence, there will be loyal ministers. again, the king should follow nature and not his own desire to be benevolent. You can't pretend to have familial love, you either have it or you don't. the sharp toothed ministers and governors all emerge to give advise when the country is in its worst state (everything is done for their own beenfit). Laozi was writing about the human condition. the easiest way to see this is simply to observe how things work today. It is all exactly the same as it was during the late Zhou dynasty. Simply switch the characters and some aspects of the story, you still have the same plot.

Too complicated already. consider that the root of freedom is a quiet mind the root of alchemy is as small as a spark making light in an empty room and the way to see the road is by having clear eyes.

a few points: The Dao De Jing did not start and stop with Laozi; it has to be interpreted, since the language he used is far to unclear (on purpose) to be taken literally. consider that Laozi worked in the library of a palace, and when he spoke, had to be very good at getting his point out ambiguously and without stirring up trouble for himself. Consider that Qian Sima had his testicles chopped off for saying something direct to the emperor. At that time in history, you couldn't have written a book telling the boss what to do, or he would have killed you, or worse. Laozi's basic premise is quite obviously political, but it isn't legalism. Legalists, although they did borrow heavily from Laozi's ideas, do away with his concept of acting with kindness. Remember that although Laozi is about controlling society, he is not about manipulating people to do evil deeds. He says that the emperor has to embrace the three treasures and act with the best wishes of the people before his own. He says that the masses should be left natural and allowed to regulate themselves. The small fish strategy is an obvious example. We should not make the mistake on thinking that Laozi is about doing some action to alter the way of people, but instead, that the bai xing do their best work of their own volition. The entire book is written in this light. Consider that at the time when Zhang Daoling created the Daoist state in Sichuan, he applied Daoist governance principles to an entire nation, and as such also gave birth to the religion of Daoism. On the other hand, around the same time the Xuan Xue school emerged and interpreted Daoism as a philosophy of emptiness. only a few hundred years later, Lv Dongbin viewed Daoism as the way of cultivating Jin Dan. People have had their own understanding about Laozi for as long as the book has existed. consider: 信言不美，美言不信。 honest speech is not beautiful, beautiful speech is not honest 善者不辯，辯者不善。good people don't dispute, disputing people aren't good 知者不博，博者不知。 people who know don't gamble, gamblers don't know 聖人不積，既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多。 the sage does not amass, he knows how to cause the people to benefit in abundance 天之道，利而不害；聖人之道，為而不爭。the way of heaven, benefits and does not injure, the way of the sage, has motive, but does not fight. The first and the last chapters are the key.

Here is a very brief snippet of Huang Yuanji's DDJ Chan Wei for fun. Taken from the second chapter, discussing Laozi's beauty and ugliness idea: "the inside of good has evil beside it, if something is seen as beautiful, it has vulgarity as its neighbour. If a situation has beauty in it, it also has ugliness, if it has good in it, vulgarity also is contained within. This dangerous hou tian yin yang* is set beside its use. Being victorious floats on observing interogation, and isn't the real xian tian one yuan Qi*." notes: places which have been marked "*" refer to pre and post heaven ideas that I don't want to create my own interpretation for in translation. I think it is quite clear what it means, but Huang wrote it this way without explaining, and we have to respect that. Basically, the idea here is that thinking about good and bad as being clearly defined is dangerous to the original Qi of the body, because it forces the mind into a post heaven way of looking at things. Genuine healthy yuan qi should be achieved through quiet observation, rather than systematic thinking about benefit or loss.

http://theteakings.com/category/journal/ Hello all, i have not posted for a while as I caught myself becoming arrogant and pretending to know more than I actually do. Please have a look at my tea blog and if you like it, feel free to also visit our store website. We are a Toronto based tea company who focuses on sourcing products in a sustainable and ethical way. We grow our own tencha in Wazuka prefecture Japan and hand grind it in Toronto to ensure freshness. We have a number of wild sourced and organic teas, some of which are really top shelf stuff. i hope that you will have a look especially at our blog, because I have posted a lot of free information about tea ceremony there that i think can help people who might not have access to a teacher. Best wishes and i hope everyone is doing quite well.

i land on earth and then immediately die, because i breathe carbon, and the damn earthlings haven't been pumping out toxic gasses fast enough recently

guys, i just want to share a cool experience that happened to me today in Taiwan. this is good for anyone who likes tea to know, although different rules apply to different tea cultivation regions, this is a good one for taiwanese tea. taken from my fb page, which you are welcome to friend https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006073785674 Today I went to visit a real tea boss. He owns a number of farms in South Taiwan and makes very good Alishan and Tieguanyin tea. I have to say, I am pretty at good at tea for a person who didn't grow up in tea culture, and I went into his shop (where I have visited once before) with the opinion that I wouldn't be too impressed, but I got totally schooled and I am now a more humble little tea boss. Basically, I opined that this year's winter tea was a little on the bitter side (Taiwan cultivates a great deal of their tea in the winter months, due to the perpetually nice climate here, and winter tea is considered to be the highest quality tea on the market here). The boss told me that I was out of my head and that I must be purchasing summer tea being pawned off as winter tea. Now to my defence, I know my Taiwan tea, and when I buy spring, summer, fall, or winter tea, I know how to tell them apart. I was a bit tiffed at the chap, and so I started at it with him in a friendly argument. He then said to me "when you taste tea and when you serve tea, they aren't the same thing. If you are serving tea, you want it to taste like the best tea your client has ever had, because you are trying to do business. When you taste tea for yourself, you need to taste it at its absolute most harsh level of taste. You need to go home, put your tea in a pot, and pour it for five minutes straight. If it goes really bitter on you, it isn't from a high mountain range and the person who sold it to you is ripping you off." At this point, I choked down my indignation and thanked him for being so honest. He told me many other things about how Taiwanese tea works today, and I'll aim to share them with you. In any event, I'm doing the first of my retastings of this year's winter tea, and I am glad to say that the first one (A Lishan tea from cuifeng mountain range) has passed the test!!!!

I just want to take a moment to forward the thought that above all of the divisions of groups, teachers, lineages, books, practices, and other ephemera, there is one thing that ties daoism together, and that is the holistic principle of the connection of the things that exist in this continuum. I would like to suggest that it would be a wonderful idea to put aside thoughts of who is more genuine and who has the real goods, and just work on improving ourselves together. This whole thing about "so and so pai and such and such teacher from wang whoever or zhang dao whatshis name" is only useful so far as history goes. If your teacher has the real goods, you should be happy, but it is outright silly to deride others because you imagine them not to have the goods. I feel a bit disheartened when I see folks going on and on about what is or is not daoist, or neidan, or whether the southern, northern, or middle school is best, or even individual sects within a school or two teachers within a sect. I basically ran away from the gongfu community for these reasons. the only practice is the one that you do, and the only person who can deliver the goods and the understanding is you. to (loosely) quote wu zhen pian "yesterday i rode in the streets on my horse, but today i lay in my coffin." life is too short to argue about what your teacher told you and how it is more right than what someone elses' teacher told them.

古之善為士者，微妙玄通，深不可識。夫唯不可識，故強為之容。豫兮若冬涉川；猶兮若畏四鄰；儼兮其若容；渙兮若冰之將釋；敦兮其若樸；曠兮其若谷；混兮其若濁；孰能濁以靜之徐清？孰能安以久動之徐生？保此道者，不欲盈。夫唯不盈，故能蔽不新成。 this passage has often been translated along the lines of The skilful masters (of the Dao) in old times, with a subtle and exquisite penetration, comprehended its mysteries, and were deep (also) so as to elude men's knowledge. As they were thus beyond men's knowledge, I will make an effort to describe of what sort they appeared to be. Shrinking looked they like those who wade through a stream in winter; irresolute like those who are afraid of all around them; grave like a guest (in awe of his host); evanescent like ice that is melting away; unpretentious like wood that has not been fashioned into anything; vacant like a valley, and dull like muddy water. Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise. They who preserve this method of the Dao do not wish to be full (of themselves). It is through their not being full of themselves that they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete. lifted from http://ctext.org/dao-de-jing but I am starting to read it a bit differently, mainly 豫兮若冬涉川；猶兮若畏四鄰；儼兮其若容；渙兮若冰之將釋；敦兮其若樸；曠兮其若谷；混兮其若濁；孰能濁以靜之徐清？孰能安以久動之徐生？保此道者，不欲盈。夫唯不盈，故能蔽不新成。 lets consider the first character 豫: yu, usually means nervous, shrinking, retracting - but it is also a short form for the country of Yuzhou, which comprises much of Henan province- where Laozi is commonly said to have been born. so we could say "they walked through the frozen streams of Henan seeming to be afraid of neighbours of four sides" next: 渙兮若冰之將釋 usually the character 將 is used here to describe how they controlled themselves- but we can also use it to mean a general in an army, so it could be "their generals withdrew like the melting ice," a kind of military tactic. next 敦兮其若樸；曠兮其若谷 usually we say that 敦 refers to honesty, but it can also be "dun" which means a type of grain recepticle. So we can say that they hid their grain recepticals very simply, and then 曠 usually means vast, but it can also mean barren - so it could be "they hid their grain recepticles plainly in the barren valleys," or "their grain recepticles were plain/not obvious, as the valleys seemed to be so vast." the section about unclarity and turbidity could simply mean that they did not make their actions obvious. why could they keep themselves so not obvious while they quietly with such clarity (how is it that they rested in that place so obviously and yet never aroused the attention of others). why is it that they were peaceful for so long while they worked hard to cultivate life? they protected the way (could this refer to a water way? or an important trade route? military route? and didn't desire to be full (didn't desire military conquest in other places?). if you don't need to be full, you will be able to cover up your past achievements (you will be able to hide the fact that you have things worthy of being stolen). This is an extremely unorthadox translation, so i want to ask some questions to history people here. During the Western or Eastern Zhou Dynasty, or even during Shan dynasty - actually, also spring and autumn period in general, what was the situation like in the Central planes area (modern Day Henan, Shandong, Anhui etc)? Are there any famous stories about very successful societies or generals in that area? Is Laozi talking about a specific winter river, or just generally? I understand that this translation may not be correct - but I want to hash it out to see.\ It doesn't go against any common principles in DDJ, so at least it is consistant with Laozi's overall message. Opinions?

thanks for the suggestions on classics, I'll have a look. my personal understanding (and what I was taught) about achieving good xiantian practice was that one of the key features stopping qi gong and other types of methods from achieving dan cultivation is that when a physical movement is manifested by the mind, the body will not be able to go into a neutral state. In that case, we won't be able to achieve wu wei, and thus go from wubuwei to xiantian and xuanqiao. On the other hand (and I think this is quite important), Qi gong is a great additive to good neidan. if we practice neidan but don't exercise our bodies, it will be difficult to obtain optimal health. Qi gong, gongfu, a healthy diet, and all that good stuff, although being totally houtian, are a bloody grad addendum to meditation. One of the reasons why I'm not very keen on decreeing neidan as better than qigong (which was never said here, but of course it was inferred), is because for most people, qi gong is a much more realistic practice. neidan is quite rare, and because it is a very scholarly practice, it won't be useful to people unless they are very serious. Anyway, I've already 言者不知 way too much, so i'm out.

DDJ is one of my main research projects, so I've read rather a lot on the subject. Personally speaking, I'm not a big fan of academic Daoism because none of the scholars have good credentials in xiudao, which in my opinion is the root of Laozi's thought. I personally prefer to check laozi against older works, especially chan wei, heshanggong, and other laozi commentaries. It is just a personal feeling that they are more accurate. One thing that I have been seeing quite often in post guodian version of laozi is that there are quite a number of references to places in ancient China. I mean character wise, there are places that use characters for areas of sichuan, anhui, fujian, henan, and the like. It makes me wonder if more recent DDJ texts may have hidden some information relevant to those places. the fact that they are not grammatically consistent is certainly a drawback to my theory, and so that is why i asked on here. if you want to have a look at some of my written work, you can check out the empty vessel spring 2014 issue. It has a short piece about laozi's relationship with neidan. That way its easier to be more clear that I'm not talking purely out of my hat about this stuff (although the final draft on the article does have one or two mistakes, it is a fairly decent piece).

what exactly are you teaching? anyway, in my experience, teaching well requires several things. - a clear and comprehensible method with basics, principles, indicators (points that indicate if a student is or is not making progress), and methods - a well planned teaching manner (the way in which you teach is as important as the material itself) - a kind and compassionate attitude (you are going to meet a lot of people whose lives are not very well sorted out) - the ability to stop things when they get out of control (you need to learn how to calm people down when they start getting excited. otherwise you will never control the class) - a good advertising method (if you want to get students you need to be good at telling them who you are - a way to keep students (they have to think what they are doing is worth doing) - continuous flow (you always have to make things feel new, even when they are just review). If you can do all that stuff, I think you'll make a good teacher. keep in mind that we all start from total confusion and work our way up to being good. I remember this one taiji seminar I taught where I asked a 19 year old karate kid to put me in a headlock.... why the hell did I do that???? LOL

i've always loved the remoteness of things, of being in a hotel by myself in a town i don't know, of walking alone in the countryside with no cars going by, I've always liked to move away from the touch of others, to be remote and distant, to be in my own sphere, my own island, but I've always loved to be close, to share with others things that are good, to spread to them, what I have found in the remote places which i love.

I've also been taught the southern school (note the earlier mention I made to Chanwei and lu yu tang), and I know about the early theory of dan existing everywhere. You'll be able to see some reference to that in a book I'm releasing next year with Tamboli. Anyway, if we start with the assumption that the body is all dan and the universe is also all dan, and that the place from which to start is xiantian, if that is ok for your practice, than good. Where i was going with that idea initially was that when we do any practice that starts with the mind being put somewhere (in the qi xue for instance), then simply by the fact that we have put our intention there, it is a non xiantian occurance. In the big picture of Daoism is doesn't matter that much if you follow Southern, Northern, Middle or even later ideas like xian xue, because the basic concept for the whole thing is taken from the laozi. I''m going to get textual here for a minute: 是以聖人後其身而身先；外其身而身存。 that is why the sage observes beyond his body and before his body, outside his body and in his body's existence (trans me), so we can say that even laozi was talking about the relationship between xian and hou tian in the early chapters of ddj. now lets take it another step further and consider that he seems to be saying that we have to be aware of the time after our body's exist (after we die), and the time before our body's existence, basically being the same thing. The area around our body (da zhoutian/universe) and our body itself (xiao zhoutian). If we go from that concept (assuming that the xiao zhoutian is the human body/mind/shen/hun/po/zhi etc... and the universe is dazhoutian), then we can infer that the goal of someone who is very skillful is to merge his body with the universe. Note that he doesn't say "baixing yi blablabla" or "intermediate student blablabla." He's referring to a really high level of practice. So lets say that a couple really early strains for thought in Southern Daoism were that you could treat the whole body like one dantian, and the you really only need to focus on the lower dantian to achieve this - that is a very legitimate form of practice and I work with that along side working with Quanzhen methods, which are, as you say, a little bit more mechanical at the start, but lets not get dan dao practice in quanzhen confused with qi gong, fasting, martial arts, or whatever, because Quanzhen also works with pure neidan methods too. I can understand why you want to make the connection between the Southern school and pure xiantian practice, but I don't see the textual evidence for it (unless I missed it). I think saying that Zhengyi based methods are purer than Quanzhen methods is just such a pile of crap. It is exactly the same as saying that Venus Williams is more of a pure tennis player than serena because she was born first (I actually don't know which one was born first hahahaha). I just want to point out for the record that i don't belong to either Quanzhen or Zhengyi, and nor does my teacher. I was taught both methods and use them both without any serious conflicts. Anyhow, if it works for southern people to say that their method is completely pre birth, I can accept that, but it doesn't stack up well against either Laozi or other xian/houtian ideas in Chinese philosophy. I'd love it if you could provide me with a good Chinese classic that has that information, because that way I could read it over and if I'm wrong about this, and southern methods really do start with xiantian, then I will gladly take back everything I just said.

people's craziness drives me crazy. Stay away, stay far away. If you are interested in: - living a happy and well adjusted life ah jeez, i was going to make about ten points, but I'll just leave it at that. everyone has their own issues to deal with and most of the time it is better to let people deal with them alone. consider: constant poking and prodding about what is going on in her head won't help you and it will just infuriate her. taking crazy girls to bed, while it may be fun, is totally not worth the weirdness it causes. I don't know how old you are, but shouldn't you be thinking about getting married and having a stable life? Do you want a nutty fruit bat crazy lady to be the mother of your kids (who i also guess you would like to be happy). beautiful speech is not honest and honest speech is not beautiful. you need to deal with your own issues before taking on those of other people (this is me speaking as a person who has both been in the place you are now and has also taken on his own issues and found some answers). My teacher (who is a total genius) said to me "being normal and acting according to normal social rules is the best way to live a happy life."