Bindi

I would agree to the extent that fear (plus a few other things) is what blocks water/emotions, but not that fear is water. Resolving fear etc allows water/emotions to flow. I didn't know that fire is joy/excitement, but which fire are you referring to, the fire under the cauldron, or the fire that alchemically has to descend? I was thinking that the fire that alchemically has to descend is actually 'light', along the lines of the light of consciousness, or Spirit light, or some such thing.

The Australian Government doesn't seem to be too confused about the issue - the Parliament of Australia site has this page titled Sea levels are rising.

In effect, start work with the lower dantian (belly) which is the body tissue layer and progress from there to energy work in the middle dantian (heart) and spiritual work in the upper dantian (head).

My decidedly non-mystical understanding is that the 'two' are Jew and Gentile, and the 'One' is the Christian church, which Paul often refers to as one body. Maybe the chapter heading, "Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ," affected my interpretation though.

In this diagram of the microcosmic orbit, yin/water is travelling down, and yang/fire is travelling up, but this doesn't tally with the need to invert the course of water and fire?

Maybe this could answer some of your questions.

From Pregadio's notes to Poem 9: Like Poem 8, this poem also refers to erroneous practices: cultivating "the Yin essence within Yang" (instead of the Yang essence within Yin), performing daoyin and massage, and carrying out breathing exercises. These practices do not make it possible for True Yin and True Yang to join one another, which is equivalent to returning to "the place where one is generated." 1 The Yin essence within Yang is not a firm substance. This line refers to the essence, or rather the essences, found within the body, some of which are at the center of the practices criticized in the present poem. Compare these verses of the Zhixuan pian (Pointing to the Mystery), a work attributed to Zhongli Quan: Tears, saliva, semen, juices, breath, blood, and liquids: These seven things are entirely Yin. Chen Zhixu (1290-after 1335), who quotes the Zhixuan pian verses in his Jindan dayao (Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir, chapter 3), adds: "Only the Essence prior to Heaven and Earth belongs to Yang, and this is what the saints cultivate to make the Elixir."

Yes, pretty much, I think this is a complicated topic, and I just wanted to not get it caught up in the many tangential practices that neidan has spawned.

From Pregadio - "In the lower part, a boy and a girl who represent Yin and Yang are working on a treadmill placed in the Caudal Funnel (weilü), at the bottom of the spine. Inverting the stream of energy (actually the jing or Essence, depicted by the water course along the spine), they avoid that it flows downwards and is wasted. (With the Spinal Handle and the Jade Pillow mentioned below, the Caudal Funnel is one of the Three Barriers or sanguan.) Water thus turns into a fiery furnace, which heats the lower Cinnabar Field placed near the four Yin-Yang symbols; these stand for the four external agents (Wood, Fire, Metal, Water), with the fifth one (the central Soil) represented by their conjunction. On the left of the Cinnabar Field is the "iron buffalo ploughing the earth and planting the golden coin," an image of the first seed of the Golden Elixir." For his complete explanation of the whole diagram see here. Actually this is relevant to yuuichi's question, "How does one identify Fire and Water? What are the characteristics of this Fire and Water?" I am personally convinced that inverting the water course at the lower dantian is the place to start making an effort, the boy and girl are very active and working together side by side to invert the natural downward flow, but they are not water and fire, they are boy/girl male/female. So to me first examining the male/female energies in the lower dantian is the key.

Awakening to Reality by Zhang Boduan Poem 9 The Yin essence within Yang is not a firm substance: if you cultivate only this thing you will become ever more weak. Toiling your body by pressing and pulling is certainly not the Way, ingesting breath and swallowing mist is entirely foolish. The whole world recklessly tries to subdue Lead and Mercury ­ when will they be able to see Dragon and Tiger submitted? I exhort you to probe and grasp the place where one comes to life: return to the fundament, revert to the origin, and you are a Medicine King.

Inverted from their natural course, water/earth rises and fire/heaven descends. Naturally, before any alchemy work, water descends, and fire rises. Alchemy inverts their natural course. The new direction, water ascending and fire descending, never stops, they have found their new balance, and the 'elixir' is continually created. This to my understanding is earth and heaven in harmony and in balance.

Water naturally descends, fire naturally rises. Alchemy reverses these: ...When the mind of Tao is obscured, real knowledge is obscured, like water flowing downward. By inverting these, we produce the mind of Tao and stabilize the human mind. When the mind of Tao emerges, real knowledge is strong and firm, and the pure and whole water rises. When the human mind is stabilized, conscious knowledge is flexible and adaptive, and the rising, drying fire descends. When water rises and fire descends, they equalize each other. From The Taoist Classics By Thomas Cleary Here And from The Inner Teachings of Taoism By Chang Po-tuan 37. Water and Fire Do not seek water and fire in the north and south. The nature of fire is to fly up; water flows down. If you can invert the two things, Water rises and fire descends, and they form the elixir. Here This is my understanding, but it's true that anyone can find support in the literature for any position that they wish to take. Alchemy doesn't have a standardised approach to any of this really.

Yes, in general, starting with the work at the lower dantian. It's fire in my understanding that comes much later and need not be discussed at the beginning, but water is vital to start with. Water in the lower dantian has to metaphorically boil at quite an early stage, but it's still all about the water really, and bringing it up via the dantians.

From the Neiye generally dated to 350-300 BCE, where Qi seems to be equated with water: zhang 15 "The Fount of Qi" 1 When Jing is preserved, it naturally grows. 2 Externally it will emanate. 3 Hidden inside, it becomes a primal spring 4 Abounding like a flood, it harmonizes and equalizes 5 It becomes a fount of Qi. 6 When the fount is not dried up, 7 The four limbs are firm. 8 When the spring is not drained, 9 The nine apertures freely circulate [Qi] 10 Then you are able to exhaust the universe, 11 And cover the four seas. 12 Within, when your mind is unconfused, 13 Without, there will be no disasters. 14 When your heart is whole within, 15 Your body will be whole without, 16 And you won't encounter natural disasters, 17 Or receive harm from others; 18 Call such 'Shengren'. This translation from In the Nei jing tu diagram water is brought up from below continually, much in line with the Neiye's fount of qi, and 'fire' is brought down from the head. I personally feel that bringing 'water'/jing/qi up and in its turn 'fire' down is absolutely fundamental.

This literal interpretation is not limited to biblical Christianity though, giving up possessions is also the Buddha's rule for himself and Buddhist monastics, and it is still practised by Indian Sadhus - both of these systems are highly respected and may even be considered to be the highest form of practice in their systems, above 'householders' who practise a softer version of non-attachment. I imagine the decision to 'sell all their stuff, and give the money to the poor' might in itself be a huge step towards non-attachment, though of course it's no guarantee of 'enlightenment.' Perhaps it just increases the likelihood of enlightenment. I think a real danger in the inwardly focused renunciation is that it is far easier to claim non-attachment to possessions than to actually do it, claiming I am unattached can be done today, but very few who claim to be unattached could actually go ahead and sell everything to give to the poor.

Does this mean actually renouncing possessions, or keeping them and just changing how you view them? In the bible it states unequivocally that renunciation is of actual possessions, but this is of course a lot harder: “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Luke 14:33 "So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."

I'd say by balancing the yin and yang energies in each of the 3 dantians.

Could this all be under the umbrella of the devolution of 'Goddess' to whore, you mentioned patriarchy in your earlier post?

Apart from word association is there any relation between child of a whore and menstrual blood of a sordid whore?

Have you successfully hated your physical parents enough to be born of the Spirit?

Though 'God' was understood to have male and female characteristics in the OT, he was still firmly referred to as 'He.' People who chose to see 'God' as mother and father might well have been insulted. But did Jesus refer to 'God' as mother and father in any biblical verse? Or is this usage only to be found in gnostic literature? Is it Jesus being called child of a whore, or gnostics finding that they are called the child of a whore for their mother/father God beliefs, which would be offensive to both Jewish and early Christian sensibilities?

It's gone from the OT's "Respect your father and mother" To the NT's 'He who loves father or mother more than me cannot be my disciple" To the #55 gospel of Thomas's "Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be a disciple of me" And ends in the shamelessly derogatory "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore." Gotta love the GOT

A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000. Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html Medical "errors" are mostly systemic problems which include poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.

Is anyone familiar with the difference wò 楃 and wu 屋 from the Mawangdui "A" text make to the meaning of the lines where pu 樸 (translated as uncarved block) is currently written in the TTC? One of the two (c. 168 BCE) Mawangdui silk manuscript versions of the Daodejing, discovered in 1973 by archeologists excavating a tomb, uses a rare textual variant character for pu 樸: wò 楃 "a house tent (esp. with a wooden roof)", written with the "tree radical" and wu 屋 "room; house" phonetic. The "B" text, like the received version, uses pu 樸 8 times in 6 chapters; the "A" text uses wò 楃 6 times in 4 chapters and has lacunae in chapters 19 and 57. The (c. 121 CE) Shuowen jiezi defines wo 楃 as muzhang 木帳 "wood canopy", and the (early 3rd century) Guangya defines it as choumu 幬幕 "curtain; cover". These variant words pú < *phrôk 樸 "unworked wood" and wò < *ʔôk 楃 "house tent" are semantically and phonologically dissimilar.

From the wiki quote in the OP One of the two (c. 168 BCE) Mawangdui silk manuscript versions of the Daodejing... uses a rare textual variant character for pu 樸: wò 楃