Kara_mia

Wow, thanks a lot for your valuable insight! I have come to the same conclusion re bonds and their compatibility. Moreover, I believe that phobic fears and health problems that we suffer from are also quite often caused by karma. I have a phobic fear of mice and rats that I inherited from my mother's family. Its a real pain - such paralyzing fear of any mice and rats, even the dead one, even the picture of it. About 3 years ago I was told by a knowing person that it is karmic thing that came through my mother's lineage.

Sounds quite reasonable. However, sometimes you just need to get rid of extra weight and you don't listen to your body any more Anyways this is true in my case. My life is a constant battle between my love of food and wanting to keep my weight stable at 8.3 stone as it is

Here we are - a Rooster is there! Hurray!!!

I believe that understanding why they are burnt does not directly impact understanding of this verse. The straw dogs are burnt at funerals in order to avert evil spirits. However, lets recall the figurative meaning of "straw dog" that means something unwanted or useless thing. Hence in DDJ it is said about the importance of cultivation. And the thesis is emphasized by usage of the "straw dog" expression in its figurative meaning, at the same time in a sense of a pun exploiting its literal relation to the funeral, i.e. pointing to the Death that is awaited everyone who is not cultivating Tao.

Thanks again for the interesting discussion! Heaven and Earth are impartial; They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs. The wise are impartial. To me Chapter 5 says about the utmost importance of self-cultivation. If people do not cultivate the Dao -no matter how young and healthy they are, no matter how rich they are, death is inevitable -C'est la vie. That's why here ii is said that Heaven and Earth are impartial or ruthless and see all us as straw dogs - lets recall that straw dogs here are related to the tradition of burning straw dogs at the funeral.

Yes, indeed, shen here to be interpreted as spirit. Particularly primordial spirit or yuan shen.

Well, both being a woman and being romantic I do believe in soulmates Although I agree that a chance to meet a true soulmate is extremely rare.

Hiya! As Jeff has written already - Tao is a universal principle that gave birth to all things. I am going to illustrate it with the example from Tao Te Ching. The infamous verse from chapter 42 reads as follows: "The Way gave birth to one. One gave birth to two. Two gave birth to three. Three gave birth to all things." So, here two are Shen and Qi, correspondingly. And they both gave birth to the three (or third) - Jing. Hence, you yourself here can see the relationship between Tao and Jing. Cheers, Karina

I agree with explanations above. When something is manifested, then the opposite is born, i.e. beauty vs ugliness, kind vs evil, virtue vs vice, etc. Therefore, chapter 2 compares a physical realm of duality vs pre-heaven world of Tao.

I adore cats - I am more a cat person than a dog person. What I noticed while communicating with my cats - cats are very sensitive. Much more sensitive than human beings. And they love people who are also energy-sensitive. Also cats are selfish in a way that they always do what they wish, and not someone else, which is contrary to dogs' behavior. For instance, if a cat jumps up to sit on your laps - she will curl up comfortably. Comfortably for a cat, not for you. Dogs, in contrast, will be persevering any discomfort and go by their keeper's wish. Curious to notice, that cats in general are very relaxed, much more than human beings.

i believe it gets harder to cultivate as you progress because you are continuing to get changed thanks to cultivation. And inner changes bring outer changes. However, the process is never straight forward. In the process of personal development and self-improvement there always would be a transitional stage, where you have to overcome the oppression of the world. This is true to any personal change on the ascend. To the contrary, change towards deterioration and decay is always easy. Thus, every time you change the world or Samsara tries to drag you back for you to be caught in the bog of Samsara. And this process is continuous.

Yes, me neither. May be the answer is hidden within the meaning of the ideogram Tao?

Oh, yes, an infamous opening verse from Chapter 42. Let me once again write it down here: Tao gave birth to One. One gave birth to Two. Two gave birth to Three. Three gave birth to all things. I would like to explain how I understand this, except for Tao itself I don't yet understand what is Tao. However, I believe that the rest is quite clear. One gave birth to Two - and Two here are Shen and Qi. In their turn, those two, namely Shen and Qi, gave birth to a third (three here is in fact singular - meaning a third), and this is Jing.

It is interesting to note, that when Ormus wrote here that Wang Chongyang was an alcoholic, Awaken was nowhere to be found. However, as soon as Arkady asked Ormus to provide references to the sources, Awaken, not making the sense of Arkady’s post, immediately settled to defend Wang Chongyang. I wonder, what are her true purposes for participating here? Is it just constantly criticizing anything that is written by Arkady Shadursky, A.A. Khokhlov and other representatives of Daode centre? (not even comprehending the posts that they write…) Regards, Kara

“If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” Confucius You can check Liji (Book of Rites) - the one of the five classics of Chinese Confucian literature, in particular its 19th chapter named Yueji (Record of music).

In my opinion, "enduring and unchanging" with regard to Dao, and in general, meaning of the 1st chapter is that Dao is inconstant since practice depends on stage of life, i.e. at what stage the person commences his/her practice.

I agree. I believe that there can be no enduring and unchanging name - neither in the manifested, no in the ideal world. Moreover, only changes are enduring. Since the name should be given by someone, then enduring and unchanging name should be given by someone who is enduring and unchanging himself (herself). And for the one enduring and unchanging him/herself words can be forgotten as was said by Chuang Tzu.

Thank you for the interesting thoughts! I have a question to all - what is "enduring and unchanging name"? Is it possible to give an example of such name?

Hi there. I am of the same opinion here. Immortals and shamanic practices don't mix well together

Hilarious! Thanks for the jokes. Anyway, no matter if there is any significance of the two monkeys in the banner or not, we all know at least one very famous monkey who also appears to be a Daoist Immortal - Sun Wukong!

I agree in that concept of karma was borrowed from Buddhism. Of course, it can be set out in hundreds of words, but for myself, for the sake of ease, I define karma as who I am, i.e. my karma is me - my body and the life I am leading. And this can be transformed to the full only by practicing neidan.

I believe that authentic and genuine daoism is not a religion. It is a Science but not a profane science but truly sacred science. Rene Guenon's works, in particular "The crisis of the Modern World" is a good source for reading about the sacred science and the difference between the sacred and the modern profane science.

Since we are all like-minded people and have interest in Taoism and Ancient Tradition in general, it is important to understand gender roles in society from traditional point of view. Lets discuss the roles and functions of male and female and how this concept is seen in Taoism. Any views, insights, experience you wish to share?

I personally often find your posts offensive and emotional and it clearly shows one's meditation level. But I believe people should avoid judging others like this. As it remains no more than a personal attitude and harms one's practice. All the best, Kara

I've read somewhere that mysterious pass or true dantian to be open itself after a certain stages of the practice of internal alchemy. Before that it is not possible to locate it.