sillybearhappyhoneyeater

whether laozi was one or more person is not very important, the importance is in the message of the text. a common idea is that the text was collected over a certain period of time, as opposed to written at once. that means that the order of the chapters is changeable. This is cool, in that you can allow the text to take on whatever order of meanings you want - and it is not required to follow it from beginning to end in a linear fashion each time you read it.

I don't know how familiar with tea everyone is here, but I want to share something i did today which others may try. I have been working on creating a super blend of pu'er teas which are good for specific health and spiritual purposes. basically, a sort of tea based external elixir tonic. what i started with today was a small blend of ancient tree pu'er and some crab foot leaf which grows on the side of pu'er trees. the blend is about five parts of an ancient tree tea from an origin I have yet to ID, it has a strong smoke taste and big long leaves which were rolled before being put in the cake. three parts ice island bing dao pu'er - an ancient tree tea from the remote ice island forest. it has a slight back taste of mint. and then about two parts pang xie jiao, a type of chinese medicine herb which grows on pu'er trees. my reasoning is that the larger leaf pu'er is very good for energy levels, but it is quite young right now, having been harvested in 2013, so it is a bit strong in taste, and it can be rough on the tummy. the bing dao pu'er is the best tasting, and also has great effects on the third eye region of the head - so it is good for starting long meditation sessions. It is a bit expensive though, so i prefer to save as much as I can for aging. finally, the pangxiejiao is a very good digestive medicine which also adds a feeling of age to pu'er teas. It can be a little too good for digestion sometimes though, so i only use it in small amounts. the overall effect of this tea boiled on a stove top was wonderful - added some goji berries in on the second brew. Haven't poured it in a tea pot yet, will make that tomorrow after breakfast. If i can find my agarwood, might even add a bit of that into the mix.....

Also, its still in development. Should be ready later this week but anyway, www.teaking.ca We do all of our shopping in China and Taiwan - carry a much larger range of teas than available on the website. We also have a product line called Tea Boss, which we are launching next weekend at the delicious food show in toronto. I'm working on a couple of other really cool projects with tj willia, owner of worldteapodcats.com incidentally, you can hear his interviews iwth me on that site under the label tea king. I do Cha dao in a very Daoist way, and I'm willing to open a discourse about the spiritual effects of tea ceremony and tea as wai dan practice.

pu'er is not smoked- it is just that the taste of some varieties of sheng pu'er have a smokey taste to them, sort of like some varieties of scotch do. I own a tea shop and do all my shopping in China and taiwan. We have a website but i haven't posted it here because I don't want to use this site as an advertising platform (gotta stay morally upright)

A good idea about breathing in Daoism is to avoid anything intense or uncomfortable. i suggest deemphasising the spine - instead put your focus simply on breathing softly into the lower dantian. gradually keep the mind there with a slight feeling of downward movement, opening, vastness and relaxation. the energy will naturally move by itself at this point. it is not advisable to undertake complicated exercises at the outside. hu haiya simply instructed my teacher to sit comfortably, close his eyes and feel his breath.

at the beginning of development of Daoism, it was seen as important to become completely positive in nature - and although laozi does talk about yin and yang - early daoists tended to view yang as a negative - i'm sure people have read about the pure yang realized sage - these kinds of sayings infer that at some point in realization, people will cast off negativity and become completely positive and saintly. the problem is that this level is much higher up the ladder than most of us ever get- remember, it doesn't matter how far one gets up the mountain, only that one keeps trying to climb it.

but i have to say in praise of this forum, having come over from one of the big internal martial arts places on the net- you folks are very civil and friendly

gramatically it is a bit more complicated than that. for insteance 埏埴以為器，當其無，有器之用 in this case, wei is related to use, 天下皆知美之為美 in this case, it is about knowing a quality of something and so on and so forth. in terms of practice - I defy you to find even one person in Daoism who has never practiced. although Dao is natural, De is learned- that is why we can use it as a way to learn how to view nature (which of itself is not directly knowable).

thought that was the whole point?

I have much to say on this subject but will keep it as brief as possible: I have been practicing qi gong and meditation since 2002- at that time, i was recovering from ptsd symptoms incurred during an accident that had happened the previous year when I was 19 years old. for the first several years I practiced, the meditation mitigated the effects of ptsd to the point that within several years I was brave enough to kick prescription medicine and get back to a normal lifestyle. After i kicked the meds, my mind went wonky again, due to the fact that quitting meds is difficult for the nervous system to get used to. At that time, I began to practice heart breathing methods very seriously and began also to have some very interesting effects. I started having enligthenment experiences (or what I thought at the time to be enlightenment experiences) and states of total clarity and calm. of course, i thought that I was really on to something, and also my taijiquan practice went crazy- as I started to launch people with virtually no strength at all- just like my heros in the ancient taiji classics had said. I eventually started to experience some serious problems though- I became emotionally unstable and socially far too honest. I was willing to pour my entire heart out to total strangers and it was somewhat of a clensing and cathartic experience- but I am sure that many people thought i was totally nuts. I also began becoming hyper happy and sad without obvious reason. the up down thing, plus a return of ptsd symptoms and lack of sleep made me into a total looney toon. eventually, I started realizing that after I did this heart qi gong, I usually ended up feeling very peaceful, but within an hour, began to show problems more obviously. At this time, i began to put my focus on the lower dantian and practicing more exrercises to root myself, as well as paying serious attention to eating healthy and sleeping well. eventually, the problems went away, and i had a small jump in physical strength and emotional toughness. The following year, my teacher showed me how to correctly cultivate the dantians and small heavenly orbit. From that time on, my practice has gotten better and better. Remember that in all things, balance is a virtue- if you neglect other areas of the body and mind in favour of one, you will also lose your ability to use those areas while you take in harmful effects from unbalanced cultivation.

They are all good! Choose for yourself based on your own best judgment. The best situation is that you can learn from all sources while still retaining your own self. My teacher is Daoist but studied Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as western philosophy (must have been difficult for him at the start, I remember how his english was back then lol....). I like to take every part of life and use it to the best benefit possible, it is all very useful and practical under the right circumstances.

but if we essentially break it down by saying, Laozi was essentially holistic, positive, and focused on the betterment of society, then we can get closer to using the concept of De to understand his message.

the biggest problem with inerpreting ddj is that the characters are prone to change in context depending upon how you read them. just like the book of changes, your understanding of the ddj will change each time you read it and think about it. wu can usually just be considered as meaning no or not, wei has lots of meanings, but basically, indicates an action or way of holding oneself. In Chinese you can see quite often people saying things like "wei shenme," which means "why", but "shenme" by itself simply means what. so way can also be to indicate a reason for something. Wu wei could also be without reason. Classical Chinese as a contextual nightmare for translators, as there is so much possibility within each individual character. each and every passage of the ddj can have tens if not hundreds of readings. There are at least 500 annotations of ddj throughout Chinese history. pour tha tone over for a while!!!

At the risk of missing out on some comments and making an ass of myself for near reading all four pages, here is some stuff about wuwei Wu Wei is first mentioned in Chapter two of DDJ, where laozi says 是以聖人處無為之事，行不言之教；萬物作焉而不辭，生而不有。為而不恃，功成而弗居。夫唯弗居，是以不去。 It is the saint who abstains himself to follow non action, he continues on without using words to teach; all living things continue and never say good bye. life can't be had, because it also can't be held, work and success don't stay, he who does not stay seems never to leave. some definitions 為: wei: reason, action, motive 無為: wu wei: non action, non motive. 為無為: wei wu wei: action without action, action without motive. Daoism believes in the pre and post heaven arrangement of practice - so wu wei is the foundational point of practice that must be achieved before going from post to pre heaven. post heaven is day to day action, motivation, activity - pre heaven is the place beyond silence. wu wei, non action is the neutral point between action and action without action. the real goal of daoism is to achive wei wu wei, or to be able to do things in a naturally constructive and positive way. the true yang state so to speak.

which practice specifically? Kan and Li can be as simple as placing the mind below the kidneys. don't need a dark room for that.

Hu Haiya and his teacher postulated that the highest level of Daoism was to be able to effortlessly fit in with those living in the normal world. one of the truly sagely people I know in the Daoism field is just a normal guy who runs a business and does kindly things for others. If I remember correctly , the three levels of Daoism were low level: monks - they can become enlightened but have to do so by leaving the world mid level: government people - it was harder to be enlightened with all the good food, concubines, and tough descisions to be made as advisor (remember that laozi originally inhabited a government post) high level: living amongst the "laobaixing" and helping them make it through their suffering, with no thought ones own benefit. Living in society and doing kind things is the highest level of daoism.

laozi belieaved that the best defense was kindness: "I have three things I hold and protect, the first is kindness, the second is frugality, the third is to not be brave before the world's origin." on the other hand, self defense is not decried in daoist literature. Consider that defending oneself is one of the main points of the DDJ. Laozi is telling people in power that they ought to be cautious about many things - most of which have to do with their own behaviour "everyone seems so happy, as if sitting on a spring terrace eating a roast - I am the only one who seem afraid and can't predict, like a baby but not a child - tired with nowhere to return. others have a surplus, I alone am lacking" etc... staying to oneself and not advertising ones greatness is a way of defending oneself. I recently watched the City talks episode with Robert Young Pelton, http://www.ideacityonline.com/video/dangerous-places-revisited-robert-young-pelton/ who goes into war torn regions of the world to do real media reporting. Because he is the only Western person willing to do this work, and does not assume the stance of one who wishes to treat those fighting as media enemies, he got to spend a great deal of time with the Talliban among other groups. this is a good example of being kind and willing to accept others, and by proxy defending oneself. In terms of physical confrotnations on the street - this stuff also applies - if no one thinks you have anything they might want, very rarely will they ever attack you. Egotism is in creating conflict with other people for no good reason.

the original character for De in the time of laozi has an eye in the upper area of the character. Last time I was in Kaifeng I was lucky enough to see an entire scroll written in the text that was used at the time of laozi - couldn't read it, because my fantizi aren't good enough, but still bloody interesting. De can also mean a way of observation, or a way of practicing something. So dao de jing can also be interpreted as the way to practice observation of the dao. this fits in with laozi's idea that dao can not be viewed directly, but rather must be seen through the lense of de.

my background admittedly is in meditation, philosophy and internal gongfu, my knowledge of religious daoism is limited but I have an interest. I mainly practice dan dao in accordance with the principles of daodejing. here are some thoughts on wen huo and wu huo. when we use fire in our practice, we must be aware that making the fire too strong will burn our energy out and make us tired and mentally ill. using too little fire will not allow the yang qi to rise and will hold our practice back, as well as making us subtle. so the distinction between active and passive fire needs to be one which is rebalanced and altered during each individual practice. it requires that we be very attentive to the feelings we experience during meditation, and to not let them get out of control. I have seen some other posts where people have had rather extreme experiences during meditation and were not sure how to handle them. one suggestion that I have is that people may wish to investigate ways in which they can relax and adjust the process of energy development and maintenance. one thing to keep in mind is that we are not only try to cultivate post birth energy, but also to nurture our remaining pre birth energy. We must not only create energy, but we must also balance it and allow it to naturally do its job in the body. most people who practice meditation need to turn the heat down a lot. most people who hurt themselves in meditation do so because they go to extremes of mind which are not balanced and do not lead to good results. conversely, many people who practice taiji need to cultivate more energy and a more alive feeling. the active fire concept can be used in taiji to alter the state of mind used during practice. if anyone would like to chime in on this, i would love for you to add to it. if you aren't clear about the weird sounding mumbo jumbo i just said, please ask a question.

best case scenario, you find the best teacher of the best tradition available to you and study that. don't waste your time and hurt yourself. qigong psychosis and other bad things are real. my suggestion is, if you don't have a teacher, just learn to breath softly to the abdomen while you sit and stay aware of your breaths. keep looking for a good teacher while you do this. MCO is just a sexy word, all correctly followed paths lead to the same result in the long run

读老子 言者不如知者默 此语吾闻于老君 若道老君是知者 缘何自著五千文 those who speak do not know those who know do not speak these words I heard an old man say but if the old man really does know the way may i ask how he felt confident to write five thousand words. poem by Bai Juyi , tang dynasty poet. thank you for reminding me to brush up on my chinese poetry again.

some general pieces of advice, since you asked: chill out. don't worry about improving yourself in big ways, just focus on basics first. enjoy the work you do. now in terms of daoist theory: when we meditate, sometimes we will have a very large urge to do positive things in our lives, or in other words, to use the energy which we are cultivating. this may also have the symptom of extreme sexual urges. What you should do instead is to sit through it and just notice it until it is completely gone. just keep cultivating your energy and it will go away naturally. This way you will enter into a deeper rest state. meditation has the effect of bringing rather a lot of mind junk to the surface and also of letting us know our hormones and feelings more closely. when we cultivate energy we should not be eager to spend it needlessly. we should keep more energy than we spend. sexuality is quite normal and if you are not trying to become a saint, don't worry about things like celebacy. as your body ages, you slow down sexually. back to advice from my pov: enlightenment experiences are not the goal, getting off the wheel is related to having a happy and fullfiling life. if you enjoy your life, you are already off one the most important wheels, other things will resolve themselves naturally. an experience of enlightenment is much less important than an enlightened life.

Hi there, my name is Bob, I live in Shanghai and the Toronto area. I have been studying Daoism and gongfu for about a decade with various teachers in Canada, America and China. A friend sent me here and i hope there is lots of opportunity to share, make friends, and collaborate on practice. My other hobbies are playing erhu music (I am an utter beginner), Taiwanese chadao, singing jazz and pop covers, slow cooking meat of various types, writing english poetry, writing terrible chinese poetry, learning whatever thing happens to be in my way. lots of love.

i have to go to work very soon, so two quick things which may be of help. the head is one of the places where the most energy sensation is felt in meditation, this being due to the large number of bones in the skull and the difficulty for qi to push through them. you may have seen in the neijing tu where the head has a picture of an ox pulling a cart with mysterious gas coming out. That is a representation of how the energy works in the head, very strong and ephemeral. the second point, you should be using both strong and passive fire in practice. so when you get this type of sensation, you should naturally slow down, watch it, don't emphasize any specific thing, relax, breathe to the lower abdomen and let the sensation pass naturally. you want to be able to turn on and off the active fire at any time during your practice, and you should be able to always maintain a sense of relaxation during meditation. you could also work on focusing on your yinqiao meridian in the legs and or lower dantian area for a while to bring the energy down.

Just for the record, my literary Chinese is non existent. I can read the dao de jing and understand 60% of the characters in simplified Chinese, so I can not make direct textual citations of that book at present time. That having been said, One of the major issues in understanding Daoism, its philosophy, spirituality, and practice, lies in the difficulty of contextualizing its original meaning in Chinese correctly. Chinese is not only very difficult for foreigners to understand, it is also really quite hard for Chinese to understand deeply. I recently had a conversation with my tea teacher (who I assure you is an absolute genius) that went something like this: teacher He: yes of course we can read the dao de jing together, but you need to know that one's interpretation of it is based on the stages of one's life. When I was in my early twenties reading this book, it was very different than reading it now. Looking back, many of the things which made sense then, I view in a very different way now. Me: oh yeah... I know all about that.... Did that mountain just stand up and walk away? Nope, its still there... ok. But then my Daoism teacher for many years has told me: you need to know that the entire dao de jing is written in code and that if you don't study with a qualified teacher, you can only understand it at a philosophical level and not at the level of practice. It can only benefit your thinking and not directly benefit your person or spirit. The majority of Chinese people who are willing to look at the daodejing seriously (that being quite few, as most view it as spiritually having its head in the clouds and daoists being severely weird) tend to have the same opinion as my tea teacher. Having said that, there are books such as daodejing chanwei (if anyone has a copy, please tell me how you got it!) which explain meditation through the verses of the daodejing. A good example is "real men breathe through their heals," which according to this book means that people who really practice meditation seriously will emphasize the practice of the yinqiao meridian in the legs. I used these several points to illustrate that Daoism, its interpretation, and how people practice is a continuum with many different opinions and ideas centred around a relatively humble piece of work. So when we do things like reading the daodejing, even if we are quite fluent in Chinese, or have people to translate it for us, may miss a considerable amount of the information contained within. Actually may is an understatement, we almost certainly will miss the point. I think that is where practice comes in- because through practice we can realize for ourselves what laozi is getting at in his book- however, we also have to make sure that the people who are presenting our practice to us are verifiable and have credentials which can be trusted. This means that we really must be good at picking our teachers. unfortunately, there are not too many good teachers of daoism in any part of the world right now, so if you really want it, you may have to look for a very long time, at a very serious depth. On the other hand, there are many people in other traditions whose practice leads to the same goal as daoism. So we may be able to approach the daodejing indirectly through vipassana, or kundalini etc... But if you really want to learn the contents of daoism, you should start by learning Chinese, meeting Chinese people who know daoism deeply and correctly, and working hard. there are already many people who have started on this path, so we can also sometimes be lucky enough to meet them and get their advice. now I'm going to amble off to bed. good night.