Fate

I've been practicing between two different modes of thought. One- Meditate right after waking. In this way you are closest to the unconscious and no mind that you want to explore and reach with meditation. Alan Watts and Osho both say you don't even need to get out of bed, just lie there flat etc. Two-I've been doing my Taiji and Qi Gong sets before meditation the past few days. I don't know if my meditation is just progressing naturally or if meditating is easier after I generate presence from the other practices, but I'm able to go deeper into relaxation this way. Experiment, see what works, listen to your body.

I've wanted to get into fasting ever since my first qi gong instructor said he saw the strength in me to do it. I figure that listening to my body I'll figure out when the 'right time' to fast is. As an on going diet change, from my teacher Albert Villodo a Medical Anthropologist and Shaman, he recommends a variant of what you've been practicing. Based on his research of healthy eating patterns from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, he proposes 18 hour fast each day. So you can eat one to two meals a day or intermittently for people who can't handle a huge meal, just limit your to eating within 6 hours.

If the powers that be could merge the two threads and delete this post, would be appreciated.

What difference does it make, really?

If you have internalized the wisdom and truth reflected in those works, your life should have a different quality. However, people usually can only learn what they already know or what they have come to understand from their own experiences. If you want applied philosophy, the purest philosophy in my opinion is "I know that I know nothing." That is what Socrates said, and he was the original philosopher in the West. He also refused to write anything down or have any sort of 'doctrine' because he said it discouraged inquiry. True applied philosophy is just an approach to life, one of inquiry. What is below the surface here? What is this event/emotion/person telling me? Tao te Ching also has this spirit, as it began "the name that can be named/the way that can be walked..." So walk on, see for yourself. Always keep that spirit of inquiry, always seek to understand yourself. An antithesis to your worldview will arise and you will have to integrate that, and this process continues. Wave upon wave, higher and higher. I do not think "information" is the right word at all, but I won't split hairs. Information is more like "water boils at 100 degrees" or "this is how you change your own oil." Philosophy is concerned with light, truth, and is always merely a guide post to what it is trying to explain. So look beyond the words to where they are pointing. All texts with "truths' or at least ones that resonate with your path so far are pointing to that same truth. I personally read the TTC 7 years ago and loved it, and as I reflect back on my life I see how what I absorbed was applied (i.e. not being ambitious. Decreasing what I want and what I have, etc.) There was never a conscious "applying" of the TTJ though. However I have just now come back and I see just how much more it contains, how I've gone even deeper and have more wisdom reflected by understanding more "aha" moments on a re-read. And even this post has become to complicated! To apply wisdom, "Go on, live." Keep moving.

This has been my experience as well, just walking the Way there have been a few experiences of retaining consciousness while transitioning into sleep. I usually immediately shift back into waking up though as it is hard to maintain! Definitely thanks for this thread though, I definitely could see adding this as a practice at some point. The view of reality as dreams within dreams has always resonated with me. Is this a practice for those who are more mentally intuitive and already have vivid dreams? Or does it help one begin to get in touch with this faculty?

After finally coming back around to Taoism, the teachings and thought of which I internalized along time ago (mostly unconscious, I'm not trying to say I fully grasped them back then), I'm interested in cultivation techniques. Now this isn't one of those "where do I get started" threads. I believe I had already started before I came to this forum, so this is more of a "have I really started and what do I need to look out for and refine my practice?" I began using Osho's book the Secret of Secrets, which discusses the methods of the SotG and Osho's concepts. The line in the title best captures the technique, and I want to see if the translation is doing it justice or how it compares to other methods of Nei Gong/Dan. It has an emphasis on simplicity, and that the mind simply wants to make things more complicated but sitting silently doing nothing is really all that is required in the end. To this effect I had no idea about the concepts of Nei Gong, Jing->Qi->Shen alchemy, LDT, MCO or any of that. The 'backwards flowing method' is the closest it comes to describing the internal alchemy. I begin by sitting on a yoga block in a comfortable cross legged posture with spine erect, closing the eyes half way and focusing on the tip of the nose. I do this after 20 minutes of visuzalizing golden light coming through on the in breath, and yin qi coming up from feet to head on the out breath. First I press the thumb against each of the fingers to open up the meridians, I do this on the exhale for about 5 minutes. Then I simply fold my hands in a buddhist mudra of balance(right hand laying on left thumbs connecting) and watch my breathing. Not focusing on breathing in and out slowly, but simply being aware of it and watch as it calms naturally and slows. Then move into stillness and no thought for as long as I can maintain (usually 30+ minutes these days, not continous but I mean thats how long this practice goes). Now I want to do this method for 3 months if its remotely close to Taoist cultivation that this forum is familiar with before I begin to add on and look for a Nei Gong teacher around or order a book to being working that way. Thoughts? Advice? Questions?

This article helped me process the insights given in this thread with more depth. http://qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/Qigong%20as%20a%20Portal%20to%20Presence.pdf It describes how any system of cultivation which is hierarchical, such as the "stages" of transmuting Jing to Qi to Shen etc. become obstacles. Thank you again Spotless and Uroboros. I will approach the mechanics much with more awareness and stillness now.

The last time I delved into my subconscious, and was made aware of all the darkness I was capable of and was being pushed to act out, I quickly had a wake-up call in the form of breaking my collar bone in a motorcycle crash. Though it is interesting you are diving into this "mental" body. Have you had any experience with your energy body? Or the center of your consciousness? The latter is enough to shatter lingering feelings of 'despair' and see what is really going in the background. Existence wouldn't be worth it if all it was is suffering, now would it? At the true center lies freedom

Well, SonoftheGods will be here soon I imagine

Well this month it is a blue moon, and with the lunar cycle being ~30days it naturally follows that the full moon is on the 31st. Although I've heard from sensitive sources that the peak of energy continues through 3 days before and 3 days after.

Everything is a manifestation of Tao, as the source of all things. I see that it encompasses all paths, all truths, all frequencies of the spectrum of energy. This 'Way of Tao' gets into interesting territory. Trying to live in harmony with the Tao, where will one stand? Yes the TDJ says "surely it is contrary to Tao" But how? Can't we only know what is Tao by what is not Tao? Don't we have to walk the way of man to come back and see what the way of Tao is? And thus, isn't this part of the unfolding to completion also a part of Te?

I see, the four directions definitely corresponds more with the 4+1 models, or the flattened Wu Xing. Reminding me of the Bagua system also helps as well, this cosmology can be overwhelming sometimes! What I really needed to hear was the Chinese proverb though, thank you Taomeow. I definitely feel at 'home' in this boat, and will take it to the place just to find all the other boats lead there as well. The difficulty was choosing and sailing.

I remember from a Qi Gong workshop that there has been research done on the blood of cultivators, and it is very clean and free of pathogens. Also the Red Blood Cells are not misshapen and healthy looking. If you're healthy and strong from regular Qi Gong practice, please share your blood with the world.

I have a wonderful quote from one of my spiritual brothers when I was on a journey to repair my relationship with Hawai'i and my ex. He said "we learn a lot from the women we love." I don't see why it has to be one-sided though. My current ex-although we are still great friends and have a casual sexual relationship, noticed she has become more outspoken and courageous in her social circles. She commented she must have gotten it from me, because she had never been that way XD Also after my first experience of intense Qi Gong practice we went through some challenges that helped her find "an inner reserve a strength she didn't know existed." Cultivate through relationships, is basically what I'm saying. "water always seeks its own level"-Taoist. Not a big fan of avoiding attachments, celibate life (lets not make this topic about that though), etc. Don't be afraid of anything, least of all love. Yes its a test, and yes its a beautiful game too. Play it well

http://nqa.org/resources/assess-your-energy/ This is what I had in mind for energy make-up. As far as further nutrition advice based on your composition, that's outside my scope, sorry. Hopefully as your practice develops you will be able to better 'tune in' to what your intuition is saying. Aka how subtle cravings indicate what your body needs (as opposed to wants!) I can't speak for the legitimacy, but here's something on the tastes and elements: http://www.carahealth.ie/health-conditions-a-to-z/traditional-chinese-medicine/5-element-theory-chinese-dietary-therapy.html

Before I respond to your post I want to come back to this topic and say that immediately after my last post I had the realization that "wow my ego sure is trying to find a way to find fault or resist this." I went deeper down and realized that this is a wonderful opportunity that has lined up, and I'm going to follow through with it. Also Shamanic journeying is great way to tap into your inner voice for guidance Ok, thank you Brian. Your post definitely helps clarify somethings, and also 'illuminate' that my rational mind was working in overdrive trying to justify passing this chance up. Mostly my nitpicking was aimed at the "storing" word, because I felt more that cultivation was about becoming a "vessel" for the Tao to flow through, not to store up. Ironically in trying to avoid any practice that would "store power" so as to not get caught in a power-trip ego, my ego tried to justify not entering into a practice that would allow the energy to flow through me more powerfully. I'll definitely commit to practicing the system for 100 days. I figure I'll get the DVD now so that I don't have to focus on absorbing the actual moves except for fine-tuning, and can experience the energy field usually generated at these workshops by all the cultivators more fully.

I definitely agree that you can become conscious and have a great deal of influence on how your life unfolds (Free will). The part of the post you disagreed with was me talking on a much larger and cosmic scale. Can we agree that the fate of the universe is just that, and there is no free will in the sense that we cannot choose to avoid this fate.

As door metaphors come, I've always preferred Rabia the Mystic. "How long will you keep knocking on an open door?" As far as Zen and Taoist metaphors go: one passes through the gate, only to turn around and see that it was never there

Effortless through effort, that's a common theme I've seen yeah. I'm hoping at least there's some moments of reprieve to balance the constant vigilance!

Anyway back on topic, as I am sure people are interested in the opinion of Fate on Free Will ;P Our lives really comes down to patterns, I prefer to look at these in terms of energetic patterns or spiritual story patterns etc. because it forms the basis of energy medicine. This is why you often see people going around in cycles, they move to a new city for a 'fresh start' and before you know it-since they haven't changed- they are hanging around the same types, falling in love with the same woman, getting arrested for the same troubles. Now once we become "awake" to these cycles, we can break free of them. We can 'write' our own story and consciously decide the kind of life we want to live. Surely enough, since the shift has taken place at an energetic level, the story of our life will eventually fit the story we envisioned. Now existentialists saw this and they stopped there. It was all meaningless! We had the burden of freedom, to create and design endless projects for ourselves because we have this free will! But its all for nothing, signifying nothing, with no unifying concept. This is where Taoism fits in beautifully. "Allow your life to unfold to perfection" -DDJ. This Tao is a guiding force in my life, pulling me gently along toward certain events that I can either face to break a cycle or continue to sleep through. Like all Taoist approaches, we see that even Fate vs. Free will the answer lies exactly in the middle. This force, Tao, or Love, or God, or whatever is what draws us all together back to a focal point of consciousness. Now this is in the incredibly long run, cosmic scale of things, where we see of course there cannot be Free Will. To focus this down in our day to day life, we begin to move in harmony with this love and so find fulfillment in every step. We focus on opportunities where we can consciously choose, and let the Tao take care of the details.

I wish I remember which talk it was, but Alan Watts had some great insights on consciousness and materiality. He said you can look at it one of two ways, either its all material and energy, bouncing off each other in a deterministic fashion and here we are at the end of the process, an extremely complex 'material' brain that you (Marble) would agree has consciousness. So where did this consciousness start? Since we agree that living things such as plants have consciousness. Weren't we all made from the same 'stuff' all from the same star dust? An Alan Watts thing to do is to follow your logic all the way to its end. When exactly did 'consciousness' arise? With organic organisms? Out of nowhere? Out of nothingness? Isn't it more logical to see that the most simple awareness, pure awareness, is what was at the beginning and it began to divide and evolve into more and more complex forms? In this way we see the process of things. Then why can't you reverse your thinking? Just as we are beings of extremely complex matter and rocks are much more simple and ancient, can't we be a very complex form of consciousness, and rocks are just a simplistic form of this? Now Watts said both views are perfectly fine, you can have it either way (see his notion of the prickly people and the gooey people). Its just the benefit of the latter view, the animistic view, is there is more 'kinship' in your worldview. It is a bit warmer to move about your day feeling connected to all things in this way, which is all universal consciousness really is. That at the heart of anything is this awareness, and this awareness connects all of us and is merely focused in different forms.

I know from my cursory introduction to 5-Element theory that blandness is associated with Earth Qi. Have you taken any surveys or looked into the balance of your 5 elements? I'd recommend that for deciding a balancing diet rather than what is "good" for qi gong practice. I'd rather eat what's good for my energy body any day

I'm still tentatively moving toward your workshop, even for as simple reasons as the names "Stillness-Movement" "Gift of Tao" and "Taoist Medicine" resonates with me (what better way to choose a path, amirite d<_<) . Really though, its just I got attuned to Reiki I, took the first class of the Four Winds for Shamanic Practitioner training, and I'm trying to commit to this path and go beyond the introduction. So you can see why I'm taking my time with this decision and asking the universe to send me signs that this is the modality I'm to work with (I've already gotten pretty clear ones that I should learn energy work of some kind, so now there's just finding one I stick with to a high level). I listened to your interview today and I appreciate a lot of what you've said and how you recognize we can only 'talk around' the truth. One thing that stood out that I'd like you to elaborate on is how you said we "store" energy in the LDT. I may be misunderstanding as I haven't felt my own LDT, the most I've felt qi flow through meridians and the spiraling of energy that occurred. Do you seek to cultivate and store qi and use it your own project your own personal qi (the qi you 'brought with you' for this incarnation) through this training?

I don't see that presupposition, can you clarify? To clarify my stance so it seems less 'political,' the Taoist concept of Wuji which can't exist without movement and thus Taiji erupts and all things once again move... I've also had a vision or an intuitive 'knowing' that I rely on that on the level of consciousness we are all once again going to merge back into whatever that oneness prior to the big bang which will lead to another big bang and this is just a great cosmic cycle that has always been going on for as long as those metaphysical laws existed. To try and enter into a discussion on whether there's a sentient, conscious creator beyond this process, and whether he has any current influence on the state of things within the process is beyond my level. Actually, I don't think its very political at all to confront people with the idea that this entire discussion rests on "having to know" or have an answer one way or the other to the question.