Bindi

Tamas is the darkness and the crudeness in man. It is "ajnanajam" (born of ignorance) and "mohanam" (the cause of delusion). It binds the soul through recklessness, indolence and sleep (14.8). Rajas is full of passion (ragatmakam) and is born out of "thrishna" (thirst or intense desire) and "sanga" (attachment). It binds the soul through attachment with action (14.7). Sattva is pure, without impurities, illuminating and free from sickness. It binds the soul through attachment with happiness and knowledge (14.6). "The Bhagavadgita suggests that we should try to transcend them rather than cultivate them. By knowing the nature of the three gunas and how they tend to keep us in bondage and illusion, we should become wiser and strive to transcend them." "When a person overcomes the three gunas, he neither likes nor dislikes purity light, passion and delusion, which are the predominant modalities that arise from the gunas namely sattva, rajas and tamas respectively." Here. This theory seems very different to the cultivate and transmute theory of jing/qi/shen, where jing is the proper foundation and not something negative to be transcended.

Yes I agree with the ice - water - vapour analogy, and I agree that the subconscious is fully aware of of both the heart and the gut centres, but, from my perspective, what the subconscious realises in its awareness of the gut and the heart and also the head is the level of dysfunction of each centre. To me it is the ability to see the dysfunction at each centre that needs to be brought to consciousness, and I would call this actually seeing reality at the level it first needs to be perceived. Not flinching from this reality then allows us to engage with what is dysfunctional in order to heal it.

I came across another way of looking at this whole thing. Researchers are starting to identify three brains, the gut, heart and head brains. Not surprisingly (to me at least) these are also the locations of the three dantians. Apparently our three brains don't always align. “Sometimes you will use one of the other brains to do the function of another.” A classic example of this is emotional eating. “It’s a heart function. You can’t eat your way to emotional satisfaction. That’s a heart function not the gut function.” Here. My contention is that these separate 'brains' need to be sorted out, by concentrating on them one at a time - starting with the gut brain - and this can take many years but if each brain can be brought into health then they can ultimately be integrated to great benefit. Trying to integrate these three centres when they are still dysfunctional just amplifies the dysfunction as far as I can see. Further to this topic, each brain has its own way of processing information or alternatively not processing information and storing the backlog, so each brain would then logically need it's own particular method to process the backlog, and regain health.

I used the phrase 'true essence' carelessly and generically, a more specific phrase would be the 'spiritual fetus' or Yang spirit. This spiritual entity can be sent out at will, and can interact with the world of matter, but only after it has been matured, and AFAIK only after our own emotional and mental state has been completely purified. By shen I mean the energy that is in the upper dantian. From my little knowledge of neidan a certain amount of shen always exists in the upper dantian, but if there is no spiritual fetus brought up from the lower dantians into the upper dantian, and if shen is not increased, then it is an incomplete process. I don't know what your concept would be called, perhaps an explanation of the Dao, or non-duality, hopefully someone might recognise it.

Perhaps, if we believed something else were possible and we weren't just happy with the status quo, the layers hiding our immortal spirit could instead be slowly removed until, when our heart and mind are capable enough, our immortal spirit might be revealed fully to our conscious mind, and we can be given full conscious control over it. This immortal spirit, directed by a fully conscious me, would then be active in and affect matter directly. And all of this takes work and effort and time, and waiting for a state other than now.

Shen is an energy that has been refined, I don't think it's light, though light surely exists in the UDT. Shen is an alchemical product, it has a 'thin, ethereal, vapour like quality' according to JAJ, I understand it as akin to helium. I see it as being relevant in the UDT, where mind patterns are created and maintained. An infusion of Shen is not possible in a trite or shallow way, it can only be the result of personal alchemy. So 'simply' flush is a non-sequitur as far as I'm concerned. Great Perhaps you're right, I'm to at the beginning of ordering my mind to know what is involved. At bottom I was just putting out the idea that 'hurts' need to be resolved in a two-step process, emotional blood letting first, and then the mental aspect. But I recognise that consciousness needs to be present in the mind, perhaps, very likely, conscious intent is required. The Shen aspect might be to be able to complete what is otherwise an uncompletable task.

There is one writer taking on nonduality and he is a lot clearer on the problem of nonduality than I am. Though I might not agree with what he says 100%, it's a great start at putting forward an alternative and I would suggest healthier spirituality. Freeing the Mind From the Prison of Non-duality

Is the Daoist concept of producing an immortal spirit dualistic?

Coming from a channels and energy point of view, how can we already be liberated if the channels haven't been cleared and traversed properly? Yoga schools understand ida and pingala have to be cleared, and then the central channel, how can this sort of immediate realisation be possible if the energy journey hasn't been completed? A mental attitude isn't realisation. From an alchemical Daoist perspective an immortal spirit is realisation. An immortal spirit isn't realised just by a notion.

This is a nice strong statement, thankyou for posting it. In my understanding, our True essence or nature cannot be revealed where any negative emotional or mental pattern exists because we would unwittingly damage or destroy it.

Where Shen is I agree there wouldn't be any negative patterns, but I do think they still exist until Shen has increased enough to remove them. I gather you are trying to remove all negative emotional and mental patterns at the qi level, I just don't think it is possible. I do think it is possible however to remove the negative emotional backlog at the qi/heart level.

Agreed, the issue seems to be that these less than adequate beliefs as much as worthwhile beliefs have become integrated into our sense of self, and the problem is that we can't separate out the worthwhile from the less than adequate, because they are all equally our 'self'. ...Although the Upper Dantian is responsible for the fruition of intuitive and psychic perceptions, it is necessary to balance the combined energetic properties of all three Dantians in order to establish a reliable foundation for genuine psychic perception. JAJ So yes, intuitive insight is probably the way forward, but Shen has to be present to initiate this process, and for it to be genuine JAJ refers to all three dantians being balanced. Even more than balanced though, I believe that yang jing needs to have been produced, specifically to produce yuan qi, specifically to produce yuan shen, and without this exact energy being produced, the most we can achieve is being a reasonably well-sorted human being, using the shen that already exists.

I think I'm more just using her concept of first being emotionally centred and this then being the basis of tackling thought patterns via an increase in Shen, by which I mean Yuan Shen. But if Yuan Shen were truly available, mental effort would then seem to be unnecessary, it's a bit unclear in her quote if she means this or not, but that is how I read it. To my way of thinking meditation would also become unnecessary, because Yuan Shen if it is there will do its work whether in meditation or not. In terms of meditation I have spent years quietly sitting with feelings, I think this must be termed meditation in some school or other. In my experience this sitting with feelings does take a lot of effort though, because the work is with feelings that are on the whole unpleasant to feel, and the effort is to allow the feeling. I have been fully focused on working with the emotional aspect for a long time, and I feel I am just now shifting to a focus on thought patterns, and this is my attempt to specify the place of emotional work within the big picture.

"The mystics say to God, "more pain, more pain." — No! I don't want it. I know what I am. We're not strong enough. Don't ask for such a thing...You're going to go out and seek that? Who are you, Saint Francis?! We're talking about an ego-crushing experience! You are not going to come out better for it, you're going to come out a little humble. That's called eating crow. If you didn't eat crow, that's not the ego-crushing experience..Once that happens there is something made available. You are opened up a little bit, but usually it takes the whole cosmos to do it...for most of us it really has to be delivered. We're put through it...But as long as the ego has that persistent arrogance and a whole network of defense mechanisms to block out anything from coming in, it's not going to get that Grace; so the world has to come and crush it so that a little Grace might come in. But no one willingly goes out to seek it, take my word for it." - Anthony Damiani

"The authentic dark night is nothing less than a compassionate and beneficent gift of God. It is 'the wound that only God can heal'." - Peter Holleran If right knowledge and fortitude are sufficient to transcend it, it is not the dark night of the soul. "Facing the inner demons" is necessary to arrive at the dark night though.

The dark night might be equivalent to the Zen notion of making yourself empty before you can be filled, if that emptiness is seen as darkness/void.

To me the dark night is the full acknowledgement of the humanly constructed self, the egoic self formed to protect the heart and mind from painful truths. Seeing that egoic self fully and absolutely clearly, and recognising that this humanly constructed egoic self lacks 'light', in that moment of recognition there is room for 'God's light' or 'True Self' or 'True Nature'.

Be like bamboo, over-achieving grass

The dark night is neither a period of psychological depression nor an alchemical stage, it refers to a quite specific stage of development toward spiritual maturity experienced by mystics and contemplatives. The dark night of the soul is a spiritual crisis that according to the mystical Christian perspective prepares the soul for divine union, which is experienced as successive stages of darkness. This darkness is in fact part of the necessary purging of self-love in all its forms, which is also perceived as a painful stripping away. In the dark night of the soul there is no relief available even if it is desired, no escape from the abyss or the void, and the only way out is through it.

Also found in Luke:13 Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed Me judge or executor between you?” 15 And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus refuses to be an arbiter of worldly affairs which involve greed and desire for possessions, as his interest is purely with things of the spirit.

If you are going through the symptoms of a thyroid hormone imbalance it might be helpful to do some research on how this affects the body and mind, it would be good to know to what extent your current experiences are grounded in physical reality as opposed to various spiritual explanations.

And this from St Gregory of Nyssa

Maybe I read this article which suggests that the pineal gland hormones generally as well as melatonin specifically appear to be responsible for longer life and good health. Perhaps the pineal gland is somehow rejuvenated via certain 'alchemical' and spiritual paths?

In the Gheranda Samhitā (Verses 28-30) it is written: “The Sun is in the navel and the moon in the head. The nectar that comes from the moon is consumed by the sun, and the life force is gradually used up in this way.”

It sounds to me like this (above) is actually an opinion which intrinsically discounts his point of view, which is an answer of sorts. I suspect we would deeply disagree on our understanding and expectation of light, for you light reveals shadows, but how can light reveal the darkness that I believe exists in the deepest reaches of our hearts, or prepare me to enter into that darkness? As it is I'm absolutely sure it's not the right tool for me, and I'm happy to leave it at that.