Bindi

There's different ways to 'do'. If a dream tells me to examine a certain feeling or thought pattern, I am calling that 'doing'. If I'm shown some very specific energy exercise to do for a few weeks to achieve a very specific result, that's doing. But all of this doing is exactly what I'm meant to do at any given time. And I always try to understand how each bit of doing fits into the whole, I absolutely allow my natural curiosity to be satisfied. Then there's the doing that is out of sync with your personal psyche and energy system because some random person who set themselves up as a master told you to do something, which you then do, and God only knows how that will affect your energy system, but it's almost certainly going to be negatively. There are various other ways to do as well, qigong is a doing form, mantras, prayer, I see all of them as doing. But what is non-doing exactly? Sitting in non-thought meditation? Not engaging the thinking mind in an activity? I gather to Buddhists the mind only is the creator of thoughts and emotions, so silence the mind, and there will be peace? Is the mind still used for practical daily affairs in some special way?

Historically there is "non-doing" (wuwei) and "doing" (youwei). This 'immediate realisation' seems also to be the prize for all the non-dualists and neo-advaitans and the 'awakened' that seem to abound in modern spiritual circles, sometimes I just get a bit annoyed and frustrated that their view is so dominant, and considered to be so superior, when what I see in its proponents tends to be merely shallowness. I did think the other day there's not really much use in me having a problem with the non-doers, they are the popular voice and that's that, I can only trundle on with my lowly doing ways and try to be content with my own path. Perhaps it's harder for me cos I'm not already perfect, so I can't be smug.

It's an interesting question, my take would be that Buddhists attempt to remove delusions of the mind and allow primordial Buddha nature to shine, whereas Daoists attempt to refine energy throughout their body which includes removing delusions of the mind, and endorse a primordial spiritual self.

Nui Heng had realised this primordial perfection but in the commentary I referred to in post#4 he "still had to sweep out the filth of the delusions of views and thought." If not before his 'realisation' then after his 'realisation', or do you discount this commentary?

I can only speak from my own understanding, but yes I see the dust as my upside-down, false thinking, emotionally tangled self. To me the mirror is where I can see this self as it really is, and dismantle this self, allowing the original face to shine through. I suspect the masters in Michael's quotes might see it differently.

In a hundred thousand ages, The karma made is not destroyed, When the causes and conditions rebound, You undergo the retribution by yourself. Bodhi does not decrease or increase. No one can suffer for you in the hells. Karma refers to acts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking, all of which bear retribution in the future. Your karma does not get lost, and it is you, and you alone, who must suffer the consequences. However, If you end your confusion and get rid of the dirt, You can easily take your own nature across. The dirt in your nature is your upside-down actions, your false thinking, your ignorance, your outflows, and your bad habits. Eliminate these and you have taken your nature across. http://www.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/bdoor/archive/sutra_comm/platform/platsutra1.htm

I read a fuller version here, and in this story Hui Neng goes to thresh rice. The fifth patriarch goes to Hui Neng and asks him about the rice, which according to this commentary is an analogy for the enlightenment process.

In your first quote the mirror is already bright, but constantly being wiped. The man cannot be enlightened because he has to work at keeping the mirror/his mind clean all the time. Perhaps the solution to permanently clearing the mind is missing, so other notions fill that gap. Notions that seem compelling to people desperate to find a solution. In your second quote does it mean there is no body and no mind? What is empty from the beginning?

Maybe Timid dog?

I do agree with this quote, specifically the need to sort out emotional issues first, and then to tackle 'negative thought patterns'. I see it as two distinctly separate focuses at two different times. Perhaps this is tackling negative thought patterns with Shen instead of by trying to suppress or redirect or ignore or dissociate from or let go of or use willpower against or any other mind approach.

Is this perspective the Buddhist influence on Daoism? The excerpt below seems to capture the spirit of this POV - [If you are] defiled by the smallest [concern about] annihilation or permanence, [then you] still lack affinity with all the Buddhas. [Due to their] overturned thinking ordinary people cling in delusion; [thus they] suffer from the defiling habits of the emotions and affections. Due simply to desires, the proliferation of emotions is excessive, [causing] the unceasing [re]birth of embryos, and eggs produced [in] dampness. [To] study the Tao, [you] must cause [yourself to be] fierce; A mind without emotions is as hard as iron. Excerpt from A Song on Meditative Concentration and Pointing out Illusion This has been the level I have been interested in. The KongFu of the mind-heart sounds good, I would like to know more about what you mean by this.

I'm not sure specifically where emotions are created, and I very much appreciate KuroShiro's contribution to answer your question from a Chinese medicine POV, but I am more certain that unexpressed emotions clog up the two lower dantians. I believe it is thought patterns only that clog up the upper dantian.

Is this your blog?

Good question Taken together the (emotional + mind) issue I see as a 'complex': In this perspective emotions affect the mind, and the result is a multitude of knots of (feelings+beliefs). How to untangle the knots is the puzzle, and the solution that has worked for me is to first attend to the emotions in the gut and the heart by using the minds logic and ability to analyse. But I am finding this usefulness of the mind breaks down for me as I now start to attend to the dysfunctional patterns of thought in my head/mind, and the solution that has been presented to me is to not engage the mind in clearing these patterns but to allow 'energy' to do it with no further input from myself. This is my solution to complete this process, to completely break down all complexes and conditioning, that doesn't accept it is an endless and unfinishable task.

I have come to the conclusion that mind can be used to help resolve emotional issues (ie. issues stored in the gut and heart), but not mind issues. When emotional issues are sufficiently resolved, the resulting energy is capable of resolving mental issues with no further attention from ourselves.

Wouldn't dismantling the conditioned responses be the necessary work?

I was curious what you meant exactly by this line from your earlier post "If we don't activate it, the Yushen(元神) can only do something in subconscious state." From the Chinese character it seems like you are using Yushen and YuanShen in the same way. Just to make sure, the YangShen then is equivalent to 'the pure yang', the 'yang lotus flower', the immortal spirit, the golden embryo, etc? And Yuan Shen is the energy that nurtures the YangShen, as well as finally clearing all negative thoughts and emotions and conditioning? Is it 'activated' Yuan Shen that circulates in the MCO?

Hi danteyun, thankyou for your recommendation, I haven't been able to get the translated book yet, but I've been busy and only had time to start trying to find a copy this morning. I found a brief summary in which the author of Zhong Lu Chuan Dao Ji refers to shen as the pure yang lotus flower that can finally free from the body, though the author of the summary notes that this is contradictory as the "Dan-sha should be the origin of the energy that could transform the body into the immortal state." Please could you explain Yushen briefly?

For a month or so I was very much 'in tune' and in the right place at the right time saying and doing exactly what was needed in relation to the people around me, but this state passed when certain specific circumstances changed. This was a time when I might have accepted that I really was responsible for everything, but I was also intuitively acting in the best interests of everyone at the time, including myself. The part missing for me in following the absolute responsibility theory without it being based on personal inner attainment is the intuitive ability to act in the best interests of everyone and myself. It's blind responsibility. I want to be led to the correct action, which happens with a strong connection to the subconscious/intuition, instead of just honing my ability to accept circumstances that I can't understand or control, and trusting that there is a reason, or conjuring a reason up. Say a lift is about to fail (or aeroplane, whatever), and without a strong connection to my subconscious intuition I could obliviously get on board and die with the other oblivious passengers, or I could find it impossible to get on that lift or plane, and recognise that I was fully responsible for not dying in that moment. In my perspective it is the intuition/subconscious connection that needs to be strengthened, not the blind ability to accept unconscious choices.

Is Shen the energy medium that allows the subconscious to be easily and clearly perceived by the conscious mind?

I can just see how this might be a useful philosophy to follow, though for myself I find it too broad right now, and unnecessarily challenging. I prefer to deal with dysfunction within myself as I come across it, and maybe when all of that is resolved I might understand the truth of ultimate responsibility, or maybe I will find another truth altogether.

Though I wouldn't have questioned statements like "all we can ever do is manage our own response as best we can" and "we can always try to make the best out of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in," I just didn't read your statement in this light. Taking 100% responsibility for everything that occurs in my life makes me think of taking 100% responsibility for any and all situations I'm part of occurring, responsibility for creating all experiences, maybe it does mean this still, or it doesn't?

Full responsibility for abuse suffered, for the devastation to self and family from war, for destruction of home and family from natural disasters?

More on the 'three brains' - how closely can this be related to the three dantians? Our findings indicate that there are three core prime functions for each of the three neural networks, or brains: GUT BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Core Identity: A deep and visceral sense of core self, and determining at the deepest levels what is self versus not-self Self-Preservation: Protection of self, safety, boundaries, hungers, and aversions Mobilization: Motility, impulse for action, gutsy courage, and the will to act HEART BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Emoting: Emotional processing (e.g., anger, grief, hatred, joy, happiness, etc.) Values: Processing what’s important to you and your priorities (and its relationship to the emotional strength of your aspirations, dreams, desires, etc.) Relational Affect: Your felt connection with others (e.g., feelings of love/hate/indifference, compassion/uncaring, like/dislike, etc.) HEAD BRAIN PRIME FUNCTIONS Cognitive Perception: Cognition, perception, pattern recognition, etc. Thinking: Reasoning, abstraction, analysis, synthesis, meta-cognition, etc. Making Meaning: Semantic processing, languaging, narrative, metaphor, etc. https://trainingmag.com/content/coaching-brains-our-head-heart-and-gut

"All people on their own have the Medicine of long life; it is only for insanity and delusion that they cast it away to no avail. - Wuzhen pian The wei-qi fields extend beyond the physical body, but I understood that the energies to increase them are developed within the "alchemical workshop' of the body" (Damo Mitchell). This reminds me a bit of the work that needs to be done with the three gunas. Cultivate Sattva and eliminate the negatives.