ShifuC

For an answer to this, you need to go back to a root source that pre-dates the TTC, the I Ching. The I Ching is based on mathematics. Also, most people here and everywhere believe also in mathematics. I won't bore you with details of the dirac delta function but suffice it to say it says that the only objective Truth is an infinitely thin line from 0 to infinity which if integrated from negative infinity to positive infinity (re: ALL of creation), its area or intergal is One. AKA Oneness. So the empty is 1. Thus 1/0=infinity is "convserved". Now, this line if placed over a compass points "north". Every hear the expression "my life is heading south?" We all know what that means, and there is a reason we do. When you place the #11 hexagram over the diagram proposed you'll note that Earth is on top, and heaven below. Empty in the mind, heart full of Tao/Qi/God/Yang. This is also called putting hsot and guest in their proper place. From this we know that the Universe is maintained in tranquility when I consciousness is removed and we consciousness replaces it. The heart is teh place where trust-worthy judgment happens. It is a vibratory measurign device. It flutters when you fall in love, it sinks when you feel terror. If people wish to judge the I Ching, consider King Wen; and also the Sun, and I rest my case. As for what this all means.... IN ANY PRACTICE, from retention to samadhi to reverse breathing there is no always right answer except what is right in the moment. You have to trust your heart and the vibration it is playing TODAY. Consider this story from the Lieh-Tzu: "Mr Shih of Lu had two sons, one of whom was a scholar and the other a soldier. The former found in his accomplishments the means of ingratiating himself with the Marquis of Ch'i, who engaged him as tutor to the young princes. The other brother proceeded to Ch'u, and won favour with the King of that State by his military talents. The King was so well pleased that he installed him at the head of his troops. Thus both of them succeeded in enriching their family and shedding lustre on their kinsfolk. Now, a certain Mr. Mêng, the neighbour of Mr. Shih, also had two sons who followed the selfsame professions but were straitened by poverty. Envying the affluence of the Shih family, Mr. Mêng called at his neighbour's house, and wanted to know the secret of their rapid rise in the world. The two brothers readily gave him the desired information, whereupon the eldest son immediately set off for Ch'in, hoping that his cultural attainments would recommend him to the King of that State. But the King said: 'At the present moment all the feudal princes are struggling to outbid one an- other in power, and the great essential is to keep up a large army. If I tried to govern my State on the lines of benevolence and righteousness, ruin and annihilation would be the outcome! So say- ing, he had the unfortunate man castrated, and turned him away. The second son, meanwhile, had gone to Wei, hoping that his military knowledge would stand him in good stead. But the Marquis of Wei said to himself--'Mine is a weak State hedged in by power- ful ones. Wei was bounded by Chin and Ch'i on the north, Lu on the east, and Chêng on the south. My method of preserving tranquillity is to show subservience to the larger States and to conciliate the lesser ones. If I were to rely on armed force, I could only expect utter destruction. I must not allow this man to depart unscathed, or he may find his way to some other State and be a terrible thorn in my side.' So, without more ado, he cut off his feet and sent him back to Lu. On their return, the whole family fell to beating their breasts in despair, and uttered imprecations on Mr. Shih. Mr. Shih, however, said: 'Success consists in hitting off the right moment, while missing it means failure. Your method was identical with ours, only the result was different. That is not due to any flaw in the action itself, but simply because it was not well timed. Nothing, in the ordering of this world, is either at all times right or at all times wrong. What formerly passed cur- rent may nowadays be rejected; what is now rejected may by and by come into use again. The fact that a thing is in use or in disuse forms no criterion whatever of right or wrong. There is no fixed rule for seizing opportunities, hitting off the right moment, or adapting oneself to circumstances; it is all a matter of native wit. If you are deficient in that, you may possess the learning of a Confucius or the strategically gifts of a Lü Shang, and yet you will remain poor wherever you go. The Mêng family were now 'in a more resigned frame of mind, and their indignation had subsided. 'Yes, you are right,' they said; 'please say no more about it.'" -------------- From this we can see that there are no permanently right answers to the subjective observer. Now I can render an opinion on the topics brought up, but I reiterate that your own feelings and where you are at in your practices are what matters the most.

If by "the way we are" you mean immaturity happens to everyone, then yes, I agree. But people can also become mature.

This thread is of terribly low class and low vibration. Why is it pinned in this forum? Are admins saying they are proud that members ignore each other on purpose? Am I missing something here, is this some kind of joke?

Good point. A statement on people (who don't really seem in control enough to be judged IMO), or on utopias? In my experience, easiness makes people fat, lazy, stupid, and weak. But I am a martial artist so that might be an unfair judgment. I think old people deserve ease, though.

Hello all, I am a licensed acupuncturist, herbalsit, tuina guy and teacher of all sorts of Chinese philosophy and martial arts. My website is www.bluelotushealth.com I also run www.theshaolinacademy.org and I make it my mission to spread Taoist teachings. I also suck at Go, if that interests anyone. I collect Taoist texts into a goodly-sized library, still building it but I'm pretty happy with it. Have all the major military and confucian classics in there and whatnot as well. I also run the Facebook group Complete Reality Taoist (Quanzhen): https://www.facebook.com/groups/627187733987952/ The goal in there is to establish some foundations for people using source texts (translated though they are) ----------------- OK, enough about me, I have a query. I am busy reading the Cleary text, Opening the Dragon-Gate. I then wiki'd Master Wang Liping, found out he has an academy, and people go out there. I checked some of the websites, but many things do not appear updated and also the sites are rather amateurish. So my question is has anyone here been or know someone who has been to the Laozi Academy? Anyone get accredited seriously? How does it compare with Master Jerry Alan Johnson's program? Being from KY, I have a hard time finding a master to complete my training. As a martial artist I believe in application, and use I Ching and Qi gogn and Neidan, but as many of you know there is a limit to self-guidance. However, there jsut ain't a lot of Taoist Masters laying hidden around here. There is a hidden Zen Temple, but it's been pretty hard to get the Furnace MTN people to open up, and I am not sure they are doing the correct sitting or just sitting, know what I mean? So a little help, and some wisdom from those who have seen, been, known, even some honest hearsay would be helpful. I appreciate it, and though I won't be a huge contributor to this board ( I run 2 clinics, teach, and have kids! plus the studying), I look forward to getting to know the people on here, and helpign to illuminate TCM theory where I can. Sincerely, Shifu Careaga, C.Ac., MSTOM, 3rd Black

Well with all the talk of fools I couldn't help but recall the greatest quote on foolery from the king of 'em 5 Gentlemanly subjects or arts, or studies I am sure you have: 1) Martial Arts (sometimes not this but just art) 2) Music 3) Medicine 4) Calligraphy (I take this to mean writing in general) 5) Poetry (I again take this to mean reading) Really, whatever refines the person into a gentleman is "superior". I don't think watching football counts, but I've been wrong before

The Mesopotamians seemed to think so, too. :-) Wetico is a serious disease in native thought. Still, don't we enjoy all the upgraded hardware so we can vivisect and disect the Tao? It may be that we were better off half and half 4000-6000 years ago... or it may be we always ancestor-venerate. Hard to know such big pictures. But surely from an individual perspective the original face and mind of tao are more poignant than ever in these twitter, red bull, facebook, miley cyrus days :-) Also, a little Te seems to go a lot farther than in the old days since we have so little connx in terms of a daily routine. I mean look at our politics, we have so few heroes, anyone doing anything positive is a sage practically!! So maybe entropy is not all bad :-) Opportunity for all us seekers. I mean at no time prior to 1970 was taoism a well paid position, now it is the subject of multi billion dollar -star wars- industry! We pay the price for seeking and separation... but also it is all so amazing and present and available as never before. Would Zhuangzi approve? Maybe not, but i like to think he is kicking it in his new form and making the best of the new digs. Certainly we shouldn't open Pandora's box so much.... but when we do the Tao just keeps producing... how marvelous and fortunate! How painful, too, of course. My God the laws and punishments are relentless, but with the Tao you mostly avoid the ghastly samsaric crap, then you are left with getting to watch an ever blossoming lotus. The science these days.... nom nom... and the movie graphics? Eye candy!! Oh what bizarrity! What ineffible ironawesomeness! The yin of samsaric life as it increases so doth the yang of it. Potent delusion powers passions which enhance the union. Then you leave the cycle and the center is all the more worthwhile. The desert island isn't 'cast away'... it is Sanctuary!

Hard to say what it is. I mean De is almost as elusive as Tao. But we see it in comics all the time. We want the 'good guy' to win. We are, like flies, attracted to the light side. We make stories about jedi and about dark jedi overcoming sith. Anyone here hate it how Yoda lost to Palpatine? Or want to really see Superman or Goku fail? Not really, bc you all are seekers, northward facing folks. And that means builders of Te. Doing good deeds isn't merely karmic, wise, and helpful, it is good training. The lower the ego goes, the more the line btw self and other vanishes and the more one wishes to serve. Without Te though, one's influence will not go far. Read the Neiyeh, it is very straight forward. And Mengzi too. Whatever Te or li are, they are pretty important in our outer life. Agree. They are very diverse. But it seems the source was very similar despitethe outflow. The dna is dna, but sometimes made a tree and sometimes a flower and sometimes a fish. We were all once flawless gorilla-like empty taobums. Whatever happened to us!? :-) That is what it seems from research. Hun, po, shen, yi, and zhi... the combinations of which make dosha-psyches roughly 3 levels. Conscious-intellectual-rational mind, subconscious, and unconscious. The interaction of yang soul or hun with shen and yin soul or po makes for a multifaceted self that is often at odds. We know what is good for us but are wierdly self-destructive, for example. At any rate, the krishnans think the hun is an atom of soul. The taoists call it a black pearl. Or the gold pill. I guess depending on inward or outward direction of flow in the wu-toroid. Inward makes empty black, outward a golden flower-light. Science calls it vacuum energy. Meanwhile, gui still seem to hang around, so it must be that part lives on, and part dies but merges with the 'ether'. Hard to know much more concretely anything else. Like i say i am finding synchresis for about 5 or 6 traditional paradigms. Difficult, but not impossible math.

Btw i am having fun already. What heated debates? No egoes are hot enough to count as hot! Let us, if we spend Jing on debate, enjoy the peaceful wars we wage to assuange the anguishes of our lack of pathos in an imbalanced society, and not take anything personally. Imo.

'Like most things, I am nothing.' I cannot convince anyone i am not a con artist. In the Zhuangzi it is made clear we are all thieves - and hypocrites. We use ego-substance to breed, economize, and especially to propagate reputation. Sf. In my case is for doctor, but do i practice the real TCM? Do i practice the real herbalism? What is real meaning? Am i a real Taoist? Perhaps saying i am a con artist makes me real... and perhaps it is a conscious ploy to make you agree i am not and am in fact humble. I cannot convince you of either of these either. Don't put judgment upon me, i am 'baka'. Judge for yourself if i am real. I mean your subconscious projected me into your forum after all :-) You cannot say anyone else here is real.... let alone this one foolish former icchantika!

Minor suggestion, this can be deleted afterwards. But it seems to me that if there is a Zhuangzi forum there ought to also be forums for: Lieh-Tzu Jade Mind Seal Yin Fu Ching I Ching and Taoist I Ching Huai-nan-zi I mean these are all equally foundational as those current forums. There may even be others. Just a thought.

1) If we say don't take magic stories ltierally, are we "being real" or having sour grapes? Are we maybe just limiting ourselves. Before, when I was atheist and didn't beleive in all this Qi BS, I KNEW it was BS. Now I knwo a lot more. That makes me think teh cup gets as large as you can handle/need it to. I have more personal experiences/eye openers, but I'll leave it at that. And yeah, I have accidentally done telekenesis, never floated before or made lightning, but have used telepathy, made use of psychics, and also I have cloud-bursted. Who am I to judge these stories? Just have to try myself. 2) Yes yes, obviously we should all remember the higher paths, and highest paths, and One Vehicle, Great Vehicle, etc... But that doesn't mean we aren't supposed to gain samadhis and dharanis and paramitas and powers. After all, doesn't a new power give one inspiration to try harder and learn more? 3) I love the post about inner power + intent/focus. That is pretty much it. According to John Chang we just don't generate/sustain enough power. It seems from the Nei Yeh the heart of it lies... int eh heart. IF we can stay in tune with Tao and not be killed by our karma, then we will have enough time to store up Qi in the chest and attain powers. So long as we help people, I don't see the problem. 4) Lastly I want to say that magic seems to be divided into 4 classes: Lowest - tricks and illusions, including using hypnosis/mentalism to fool the person Minor - the small bindigns of magic that are in our everyday lives and uses (like electricity). For example, one commonly used black magic is to give someone a "gift" and then ask them for a favor. That is hardly making a person a warlock, but they know the spell of it works. It makes the other person subservient. I think people anywhere seeking magic would do well to first observe the magic they already know and use, and understanding karmic binding. Middle- powers acquired for the purposes of being a Jedi, for lack of a better term; I would also include manifestation/attraction in here as it is a type of telekenesis, after all. Highest- shamanic/ritualistic/even professional magics (like law or surgery or acupuncture) which rely on the mystic effects of karma to make unseen changes that mystify the casual observer. It seems that like the illusionist, one needs to know enough of how it works, while the casual observer must remain mystified for the effect to last. But unlike the illusionist, the shaman lets go what they CANNOT know or control to perform what people call "real magic". Is not chemistry or biology real magic? After all they do not KNOW everything they are doing, just enough, and they can clone things, make new beings, create substances all anew. Make no mistake, there is more magic being performed now than in any time in history! Power + intent, that is the key. Also remember that you must use your own golden light and essence to perform any ritual (hence why massage therapists and reiki practitioners wear out so quickly when they work so hard)... so don't go playing around with something dark thinking it won't affect your health: it will!

You have compeltely missed it. The concept of Te (De) is inherently related to Ming and Li. The reason for different words is they came from different regions and different origins, but the idea was basically all the same. Ethical behavior results in moral power. Mengzi meditated a lot, and Kongzi frequently referred to the Way (from his students' quotes). Remember, at that time there was no "Taoism" Tao and Wu-ji were separately derived concepts that really reflected the same observation through different peoples, that the Universe had a universal source. The Laozi school did not give Di (God) the credit for the unending power of it, while the Mozi school called the power Heaven (Tian). All of these are various degrees of separation of Yang Qi (from yin/yang school and medical philosophy). But the fact is that the real Tao that cannot be named, is at the heart of EVERY Chinese philosophy, and Buddhism was only accepted because it basically has the same idea in Dharma and Shunyata. The agreements between Chinese philosophy and Ayurveda are too numerous to discuss here. That lends credence to their scientific research, IMO. While the Chinese were coming up with these multi-facted parts that would later become Taoism, the yogis were doing the same thing. Where they differ is over-emphasized, IMO. But make no mistake, Kongzi WAS Taoist - by the standards of his day. The Zhou were obsessed with the "way" of Heaven in everything, and he was obsessed with the Zhou ancestors. I really suggest reading the Book of History, it is very enjoyable (more than the Spring and Autumn annals) This has long been challenged. It is a neo-confucian throwback from the Victorian era. I recommend checking out some of the newer Sinology works on real Taoism. And read Taoist Master Zhuang. I had a similar conception as you did before this year and I really had my eyes oepened. Taoism was always more public than private, and that makes sense. Most peasants prior to 1970 could not read or have libraries of Taoist texts. They relied on rituals and festivals. How is it esoteric? Very simple idea really. They saw the next world as a reflection of our own. You need clothes, food, and money in it. Highly pragmatic, really. Too simple? Perhaps. But after all, that's all we can guess the Other World is like, since we have nothing else to go on. As for the gods and spirits that they use to commune, yeah it gets heavily diversified and regional, but it isn't per say esoteric so much as Shinto/animistic. you need striving and non-striving to reach the Tao, according to Liu I Ming. In my experience this is more accurate a take than the Zhuang-Lao-Lieh school's ideas. I think Kongzi's "failings" (he IS an immortal you know, so I can't really judge him) is that he never could let go at the right moment and let his striving revolve into non-striving. He fought too much for his ardent views, failing to see the relativity of life. He held to what was "right with Heaven" and failed to see his choices would affect not just his family and followers, but the country. He should have bent and used Expedient Means. So many wise, sagely ministers fell victim to what was closest to them. Kongzi, Wuzi, Sun Bin... all of them were victims of court intrigue. I can't say I would do any better. But in life I have found that the luxury of ideals is a luxury. Winning for good is more honorably than losing on behalf of being "right." Then again, in the end it worked out for him. It's too bad his school ended up being twisted into a hatred of Taoists. As someone said "closed-hearted" is the essence of the problem with the many sincere Confucianists. Well, glad you asked. First of all, your avatar dies, that is the person who is an amalgamation of the 5 souls (Wu Xing spirits). Your gui is dishcarged right into the matrix of the Tao, and its data is accessible to anyone who had an type of quantum entanglement. However, like Jor-el, whatever you see/experience is just a shade of the original. Namely the part of the person that desires and lived "in the world" Meanwhile the Hun/Ethereal Soul returns to the Void (Wu) and is "cleansed" (See Book of the Dead), and is then re-combined with the essences of new mother and father, and these 3 parts make a new Hun-Shen particle that is inserted into the fetus. This was a crash course, but that about sums up my research from sino-tibetan-vedic-catholic-gnostic-shamanistic syncretism. That is not accurate at all. There are dozens of Taoist texts which refer to the cycle of birth and death. True, most texts came after the importation of Buddhism, but I am not sure that there were NO cultures in China that didn't believe in reincarnation before 100AD. After all, it's pretty much part of the Wu Xing system. Things moving from no form into form and out of form again must by common sense move into form again.... we cannot know for sure what the peasantry believed... we know they believed in Heaven and Hell based on celebrations, but we do not know if they thought ghosts could not come back to life. What the literati and gentry believed was way more diverse than has been reported and after all remember before the Qin dynasty there were dozens of states and after the Han, there have remained still dozens of sub-cultures including Muslim and Jewish and many others. Point being it is very unlikely that Vedic ideas did not invade the southlands at least until Buddhism. I am more or less certain they did. Karma was probably not a new idea to the Chinese.

Jerry Alan Johnson's Qi Gong therapy vol2 Opening the Dragon Gate: Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard occasionally I peruse the Chu-ci (Songs of the South) trying to re-read the Hobbit, but nto finding much time for it. Also I read the new Star Wars series, The Star Wars, and the God of Thunder, which is not blowing up my skirt to tell you the truth. I think my favorite comic right now is Dawn of the Jedi, which has numerous Taoist references! I most recently read: the Xingming-guizhi, Magus of Java, Taoist Sorcery (not sure it has an author to attribute it to), and my most favorite recent read was the Guigu-zi, which was really astounding and perplexing. Highly recommended there. I also read most of Taoist Master Zhuang and Early Quanzhen Masters, but they did sort of get less interesting after awhile. I plan to finish them soon. It sucks bc my tablet if you don't open t eh file after like 6-7 days it forgets your place and even your bookmarks. Pretty crappy app.

Just fyi, it's a pretty good movie. Slow, but if your'e a fan of Kongzi, or anything pre-Han, you have to see this film. It stars Chow Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)... *spolier alert* and I don't want to give anything away, but yes Laozi makes an appearance

It also means doctor in Chinese. And barber too, but we'll pay no attention to that

Well, TBH, my goal is to become accredited. Any help in that direction is help at all. My intention is to start a Taoist/TCM academy here in the Bluegrass, but I figure I need something to "prove" my training, which is annoying but after all, that is how Americans think. I would also like to have a real master, though I am not dying to find someone to give a lot of money to to do it. I don't mind paying, though, if the training is real and helpful. As far as I can tell JaJ's program is real. However, since I have a positive view on him, I am wary to not lose such a view in some kind of shocking/disappointing manner. If that was bound to happen I think I would just rather enjoy the digital Master's videos and the books. I've found a surprising amount of gurus to have not performed the work required to tame the Human Mentality. When that happens sometimes you lose mentors. Which sucks. I read the thread on here, and it doesn't endear me to go out and meet him, and yet I really do think highly of him. So I am a bit stuck in that vein. That's why the Wang Liping option interested me. But now I see many people think it was overpriced. It would be fine to just do the real training in his system using the book. Then all you do is get the certification or w/e but really you do the training. If Master Liping's courses are awesome though, then that is different. I am sure the right way to "thread the needle" will arise. Until then, I'll still be studying and training. But I really do want to become accredited though. It may be as the recent Tibetan/aboriginal shaman said to me though when I asked about becoming a wizard... that I would need to study other systems first before returning to the Mao-shan Thunder Magic traditions and Pole Star rituals. Well at any rate, just thinking aloud here, pay me no never mind.

His arguments are equally valid and invalid, as at the time, there was no such thing as Taoism. Everyone was Taoist without calling it that. So like Schroedinger's cat, you can have it either way. Considering it references Tao and Qi, that is enough for me. Most modern sinologists admit that laozi text did not start taoism, it became the foundation after all the structure and scholasticism was created in Han and later times. Much of the Zhuangzi has been found to be older than laozi. Things were collected by editors and posthumously attributed all the time. The Hua Hu Ching is a perfect example. Imho, Nei Yeh is not only Taoist, it is quintessentially so. Peace.

:-) i see you brother.

Well I found the Wang Liping stuff but not really the exact answer. I will do a search of JaJ soon. No need to cite the rulebook I have been on forums for about 25 years. I don't conform anywhere I go. If you need to remove something just do it, I don't mind either way.

considering Zhuangzi's text has parts that are older than the Laozi, indicating he was quite older than Buddha and before Buddhism, he couldn't have an opinion on the subject as a mortal. As an immortal I have a hard time seeing him care about such divisions. There is the Way and there is division. He was interested in the Way. As for "true Taoist" it seems you have a lot of opinions. But it was Zhuangzi who said "where is the man who has forgotten the words so I can speak with him?" The Way is all inclusive, it has no judgments between religions and dogmas, nay not even between Laozi, Zhuangzi, Nei Yeh, and other foundational texts that had differing ideas. When you put out statements that say "this is right" and "this is the Way" it stifles discussions and dialogues. One thing the Lotus Sutra shares in its immeasurable wisdom is Expedient Means. Whatever gets the person talking and moving towards the Way is the "right" doctrine. Otherwise it's all "the filth of frivoulous debate". Sometimes that might be Taoism or Buddhism or Calculus or Tarrot or Mormonism, or even Atheism. If a person wishes to share a word with the Tao-mind in any person, forget your own perceptions and hone into theirs and then you can "find the man who has forgotten the words" Then no conversation can ever be stifled. If you look carefully I never said I agree or disagree. No harsh means of debate are herein. Just gentle pointers. I am not here to debate only elucidate. Peace to the world on the pagan day of celebrating the Amita Buddha's emergence in the Western continent of Jambudvipa (Christmas). I better get off this forum, you guys are going to be too interesting to leave otherwise!

OK, we have a winner. This is probably the best source I have found on the subject. I would cross reference with Understanding Reality. Also please do not mix up with the "yellow court" even though yellow is the color of earth/center. Many of the ideas on here are valid, though. "Center" is enough. So I think most would say the Navel area/level. Wang Liping had an interesting idea. That since there are "8.4 inches" between the lower dan tian and heart, that it is 4.2 inches below the heart. If 1.5 inches is ~3 cun (using his book), then 4.2 inches ~8.5 cun, or somewhere in the region of RN11 and 12. At RN11 I have seen often creases in patients who have delved into their essence due to chronic or longterm degradation of Qi. RN12 opens the pylorus. RN14 goes to the heart and so does RN10. So, if one were to look for it in the body (and the BoBaH says it is not IN the body but is NOT to be sought outside the body), then that might be a valid area. However, IMO, actually the "center" is found by first ascending to DU20 then using its connection to the vagus nerve/Liver channel and mentally gazing vertically downward to pass through the heart chakra towards the perineal floor. The center I think is this axis. You see in Neidan/Qi gong the points of activation lie along a circle. But in yoga, they are spheres suspended from DU20 to the pelvic floor. They are entered through those points on RN and DU (nerves/channels/luo mai), but the activation uses the Taiji concept of Peng/Zheng and makes a rod-like connection that ascends out of DU20. Technically speaking the rod is also a center if you look downward upon the body. It is a perfect center. That being said there is also a point in the center of the head between taiyang's and Yin-tang, when the head is tilted forward slightly yin-tang and the occiput are level. AND this point I have found gives one "dragon's eyes" and is active when you are "non-minding" aka Mind of Tao. As soon as you sense it, it tends to move away, so don't hold onto it. It isn't the 3rd eye, it is behind it. So I have given a few options, now go find it! peace to you all, hope you got some good taoist texts for Christmas like me!

Yes, two books people can read are the Eskildsen "Teachings and Practices of Early Quanzhen Taoists" which is an eye opener for sure (if you're used to the Liu I Ming stuff); and the Opening the Dragon Gate. As regards a middle path, I think nothing exceeds the perfect advice of the Hua Hu Ching. < personal opinion And the use of the Taoist I Ching from Quanzhen sect is absolutely vital IMO. I also see that the words of the Book of Balance and Harmony are actually balanced and harmonious, very fair and useful. I did not find the Xingming Guizhi to be as useful as that text or Understanding Reality. And of course the Secret of the Golden Flower. This is all in addition to the Chuang-lao-lieh school. BUT no matter what, refer back to the Nei Yeh (buy the book "Original Tao") and Huang Di Nei Jing! Since most things came to us post copiers for 1,000 years, it is essential to get texts that are actually known to be more than 2,000 years old in extant form. Hope this helps. OH, there is a really short ancient neidan poem called the 12-sided Jade Knob, might be of use to people as well as a basic program of truly ancient people. It was literally etched into a jade knob from like 2000+ years ago. (and don't tell me neidan was invented after 200AD, that is nonsense of the literati. Neidan is of course as old as humankind sitting around eating like gorillas).