Taoist Texts

Thats a metaphor i dont understand. The 5 year old is apparently the adult student. Why is an adult compared to a 5 year old? And what exactly is the nuke here?

I know and I salute you for your honesty. However, always sad to see a gentleman tainting himself with a bunch of shameless profiteers. Its all right Walker. Two things: first, i can find those references with a couple of clicks - its 21st century, no need for you to waste your valuable time for that; second, - and i am sorry to be blunt, but man, because you (and your neidaneer friends) have not made the neidan - you do not know what you are talking about. I on the other hand do know. Because i have made the neidan.

Hi Walker! Yes, by all means;) Yours is very generous offer. And not at all bizarre, either! Well, you see Walker, selfishness is not the issue. Your having the goods is. The info of your proffer pertains to the neidan, which is a mystical object of rejuvenation and immortality. Unless you personally have created that object, your info is not very valuable, and since we are negotiating I must ascertain if you offer me a fair deal. Have you created the neidan, Walker?

Thats western 'daoism' in one sentence for ya.

ah, books again Who? A talking mutant goat, thats who. the Yellow Emperor visited the mythical East sea and met a talking beast called the Bai Ze who taught him the knowledge of all supernatural creatures.[46][47]

all the immortals got together, approached him in a park, looked him in the eye and personally told him so

It is an interesting topic. When we can generalise and when we can not (or allowed not)? 'All smokers are damaging their health by smoking cigarettes'. True or false?

Hi Walker yes thats what i meant, then following your question decided to double check and found this commentary 大道之要，不外无为而为四字。 I wonder who the author of it is. Still think that i am right though.

well, if that BS gets that work done, may be it is not such BS after all;)

Cleary's translations are acceptable for simpler chinese texts, but not this one. He has mangled the original to the degree of a total misinterpretation of the meaning. a couple of trigrams are borrowed in neidan to superficially illustrate one or two of its main ideas. beyond that, there is no relationship, except in the minds of those who do not understand neidan.

Kongming, your reasoning is logical and clever, but it is your own. It is not what the chinese canonical sources say.

Says who?

Someone can, but he will be quoting through his hat, since LZ is a political scripture which has absolutely no contemporary connection, content or reference to neidan (the latter coming into existence a a goodly 1000-1500 years later). Or, to any kind of bodily practice either, for that matter. LZ got tied to neidan simply by the virtue of being the almost only non-Confucian text surviving in circulation after the tumultuous historical transition from the archaic to classical china. Its almost complete illegibility past the superficial Quietism did not hurt either.

Oh it was mostly a political question from a specific context of different thread. Why and when we are not allowed to generalize? My answer would be that generalization is accurately predictive when A. the generalized category is not expected to change from a specimen to specimen and B. when the cost of not generalizing is forbiddingly high. Your cows example would be A. In your dogs example substituting dogs with snakes results in B.

The answer is rather simple. To the moral people Tao is moral. To the amoral people Tao is amoral.

Except myself. Something has found me already.

Walker;) please note that i provided no explanation at all beyond literal translation of that line. Providing explanation would be teaching publicly and for free, which i do not do. Please do. I promise not criticize it, but we can have a courteous discussion if you wish. Have no fear Walker, mine is a sippy-cup , spill-proof design, for my consumption only.

There must be quite a few of you guys out there. Please do! See, we are having a conversation which is both courteous and exciting already;) This is strange. You are saying that the method of alchemy can be used for the huge task of achieving immortality, but can not be used to overcome small tasks that you list above. Does that make sense? What you say does make sense only if the teacher does not know alchemy himself but rather strings the student on with preparatory qigong, hoping that the dunce will pay long enough, then quit and be replaced by a new one. Its called the 'optimal rate of customer churn'.

You guys are waxing phylosophical, while i am shooting for a practical answer. How many apples in a barrel you should bite before concluding that the whole barrel' gone bad? Shall i drink the sea to the last drop to know that it is salty throu and throu?

oops wrong thread;)

So, 1 year, no neidan, just qigong. Good, no probs. Excellent. But still qigong, not neidan. No neidan created in 1 year. Well, may be next year. Thanks for sharing;)

Hei look my favorite neidanisto! How are you amigo? Yes you are correct. I posit that neidan will make anybody sick in body and mind, in due course. Tsk, tsk, tsk. A little bit angry, a little bit paranoid. Is neidan making you so? MTC? False? Which experiences exactly? Please tell us. Like what results exactly? Please feel free to share.

Good, i love data. As you know the only reason to study data is to predict. And prediction is impossible without generalization. Yet, an ordinary individual in a society is forbidden to make generalizations about other individuals. Unless the generalizations are government-approved. 'Smoking is bad', 'Vaccines are good', Why? The answer is power. To make a generalization it is to gain power over the generalized. To the detriment of the incumbent powers that be. Since we live in a zero-sum game. To forbid generalization is one of the ways to stay in power.

Thats the key word here.

Half a year! This sounds like something very serious, wish u to get well soon. In my experience the only cure that is extremely safe and produces wondrous results is fasting , give it a try if you will.