Kadesdes

Actually, Neidan and Daoism are synonymous.

If you want to understand Neidan more, you can compare Neidan and Qigong in a lot of ways. Essentially, Neidan is about understanding the inner functions of the human being as a whole. In Neidan (and Qigong) there is no separation of physical and mental because it is all part of an integrated and interconnected whole. Both Qigong and Neidan work with energy. You could say that in Qigong one learns how to work with, move and optimise energy. It's like learning how to fill your cup to the very top and keep it topped up. Neidan is like adding a new handle to the cup, increasing its size and even changing the material the cup is made of. A key goal in Neidan is to work with the pre-natal energies of the human being. This is not possible in Qigong.

Maybe a living organism cannot live without post - energy, but the pre - energy aspect of the being continues just fine without being nourished by oxygen for example. But this also implies that the organism cannot live without pre or post energy.

These statements remind me of an analogy I read once about a model of the human brain known as the "triune brain" which specifies different "layers" of the brain identified as having developed one after the other in an evolutionary sequence, the frintal lobes being the most recent, the limbic system the middle layer and the oldest being the "reptile brain" or brain stem. The analogy was it is like we are all riding on the back of an elephant. We think we have tamed the elephant and we tell it where to go and what to do but every now and then, our more "basic instincts" take over and eventhough we are desperately telling the elephant "no no NO! Don't do that!" (eg elephant sees one sexy lady elephant and proceeds to affront her in public with his growing appendage) we helplessly pull on the reins, struggling to get control to no avail. We get swept up in the moment and become one with the drama rather than one with the events in wakefulness to witness the cycle transpiring before us.

So I am curious about what it means to "flow with the tao" let alone how we know we are "flowing with it". Looking at it one way, I am not sure we cannot, not flow with the dao as we are always in it and are it. But from the perspective of the individual organism I think that flowing with the dao would be related to living in the world of duality - ying and yang - whilst navigating within it as an expression of the form you are in to move towards the ultimate nothingness where all is one. I suppose the easiest signposts for an organism is that it will move towards what feels "good" and away from what is "bad" (although in themselves can be misleading because the good is bad and the bad is good). So once you can move away from purely looking at the world in absolute terms and can see how one extreme can lead to the other and vice versa, that in itself is a way of flowing with the tao. So moving beyond duality are we not in a way still instinctively moving towards what is "good" so how do we define "good"? Is it that which we do so that we can continue doing, moving, expressing our utmost best feelings of goodness?

It certainly is a profound change - I think this obsession with controlling everything can be seen at large as the underlying pattern of modern civilisation and its insane and rampant consumption of the planet. We have enough resources and technology now to feed everyone but we have people in cities running around in circles striving, struggling to make as much money as possible, working ridiculous hours and living imblanced lives whilst turning a blind eye to the people lying on the side of the road with nothing but rags. I think we all DESPERATELY need to slow down, I think humanity has become obsessed with "doing" and "growing" due to to the sheer opportunities that our discoveries and developments have opened up for us. We have basically created a living environment (cities) that is in complete opposition to nature and moving at a scary pace. I watch nature documentaries sometimes and note to myself how the narrators sometimes say "We (humanity) have conquered nature" - I think it is quite an arrogant statement and reflective of the immaturity still inherent with us.

I have found that "letting go" is one of the hardest things to do - ironically - because of what the word implies. It is like Squeezing a stress ball in your hand until the skin goes pale and then you realise that you can just let go and relax. But the mind is so needy and paranoid with its throughts trying to control everything your hand soon clenches up again....and then you again remember to just let go and jump off the cliff without holding back. Keep to the black, but know the white.

Yeah I have always suspected that it feels better with long sleeves because you can feel the movements more and that gliding, floaty feeling tends to accumulate but I wonder if the long sleeves also literally help keep the chi in, it certainly literally feels like the wind carries the chi away!

The weather has been all over the place lately, but all year round I would say it is fairly cool overall but quite hot in summer. I usually train in a nice shady spot and never in direct sunlight feels best.

Hi guys, I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced this: Whenever I practice taiji or Qigong it ALWAYS feels better when I do it wearing a shirt with long sleeves.....the movements feel "fuller". I have also noticed practicing in a windy place seems counter productive. Comments?

I think that the more skilled you become at doing qigong, the more relaxed your body and nervous system become and the more efficiently you manage your internal energy, you start to automatically do qigong all the time without trying although having said that, additional techniques can be used to supplement that but I think constant all round practice is dependent upon how much of an expression of Qigong your every movement and life in general is.

Thanks for the comments guys! I did suspect that my sugar level was liw but I also wondered if there was anything else to it as I could not feel my body. I will simply let it be for now

Hi guys, This has now happened twice: About a year ago I was doing the Tai chi form and I was fully in the zone, fully relaxed, and movements flowing and as I got about half way through (about 15 mins) it was as if I could not feel my body or like I wasn't actually moving my body but I was moving the movement itself if that makes sense. It was quite interesting but soon after that I began to feel VERY hungry and like I just wanted to lie down and look at the stars in a fully relaxed bliss - which I did so and then later went to eat something. This happened again to me last night and it was during my Qigong practice. same sequence of events but this time I did not eat anything I just allowed the feeling of hunger to be. It gradually went away as well as the feeling of wanting to lie down but as I continued something different happened - I began to feel a bit shaky, my arms and legs were all shaking slightly and throughout the whole session I was fully alert. Can anyone comment? Thanks

If you get to 1000 days and become a semi - enlightened then I doubt by then you will want to reward yourself with or have huge sex urges because by then you would have become quite proficient at sublimation and transmutation that the energy doesn't build up enough to feel than uncontrollably horny. I think this question reflects more how you are feeling at this moment or at least part of you and having said that I would not think there is anything wrong with this if it is done with respect and consent from the other party.

Can I ask what your experiences have been when you say "I learned the hard way"? Kadesdes