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It seems reasonable about qi, but the problem is to get access to preheaven qi cultivation. Whatever you do with postheaven qi, it does not lead you to the emptiness and, from the other side the preheaven qi is a matter of secret practices.

Taoist approach in cooking and eating food is in taking maximum use of the products taking into account personal conditions of a man in this particular moment (health, yin-yang balance etc). It is not the specifics of the ingredients but the specifics of combinations of different types of products based on their qualities - taste, thermal nature, one of five elements, affected organs etc.) The best food is one that has just been taken from a plant or just have been prepared in case of meat/fish. But if this is impossible then at least you should take into account the above mentioned. Rgrds, Ilya

If you try to leave yourself then it looks like smb fell in a hole, then ran home for the stairs to get out of the hole back... Mean that you can try to forse to refuse from your ego only using your mind... do you see? The only way to come to pure awareness that seems to me correct is to improve the body so that it is harmonized and thus stops to stimulate mind to produce spam thoughts. This have been discussed in the threads about shi shen and others. Rgrds, Ilya

Yes but finally the result is a calmed essence with thoughts that are stopped in a natural way without any force. This is a result of harmonization which must correspond to the same level of harmony in the body. Rgrds, Ilya

Good points, but clear mind effect does not come if you just want to stop all thoughts. It is like an endless river which you are trying to stop - in one moment it will tear the mind limitation and will fill in your mind with thoughts again. The only way I know is to relax, harmonize energy flows and stabilize heart. After this your mind will become more quiet and stable with time. But this is a general direction, the methods should be tried with someone who is qualified. Rgrds, Ilya

The rational for the fish but not fire is that the main thing is yuan shen, and it is alive, and the water is like a substance which feeds the fish and which is the area where the fish exists. Rgrds, Ilya

Based on my understanding yuan shen can be cultivated after the work with yuan qi started, otherwise it will be only additionally wasted. From the other side some preparations must be done on the earlier stage - as a xing normalization and harmonization in general. Rgrds, Ilya

Then a question "what is awareness" arises. As well as what is pure. My understanding is that it is a sort of self understanding or essential and constant self identification as it is, untouched by mind, thoughts and not involved into myriads of things happening each moment. Rgrds, Ilya

I think sharing yourself with another one is possible if your both energies supplement each other. If they don't then one can be twice open hearted but will not receive the same attitude. This is close to Taoist paradigm about xing-ming compliance or mutuality.

From my point of view its better to avoid all manipulations with mind in attempts to do smth with Dan tians. The reason is very simple - our mind can produce only a vision of smth happening when it doesn't. So it can turn us to illusions of the results and deviations difficult to correct further. Rgrds, Ilya

Then what would you do in case its time to have family and children? Would you still be waiting for the ONE or will stay with someone who is suitable? This is a case when "a perfect approach" can leave someone with unrealized dreams for the whole life.

We can try to investigate ourselves but we should understand that human body is a very very complicated thing which we are unable to understand fully from our human point of view. Therefore some things we discover can be only a sequense but not the reason. And in this case a wrong conclusion is probable. This is one more argument for having a teacher vs training by books or other materials. Rgrds, Ilya

There is also a question of balance between pelvis moved slightly forward and absence of tension in the belly zone. If you move a pelvis deeper this will stimulate muscles of a belly zone to hold this position in order to keep pelvis fixed. So this aspect (balance) should be kept in mind regardless of the concrete stance. Thus from my point of view its better to practice with the instructor who can correct the mistakes (and some of them are not obvious!) then to try stances based on advice even if they seem worth doing. Rgrds, Ilya

Seems very interesting and at least worth of thinking. The question is why and how do the opposites appear. So lets imagine that firstly (or in the 0 phase of a cycle) there were no opposites (say yin-yang). How did initial impulse appeared that created or stimulated the birth of these opposites? This question of wuzi-taizi transition is unclear for me and I suppose it is one of the simplest and at the same time most unclear things. Rgrds, Ilya

I was going in Shotokan for two years and can say that this system stimulates muscle work at least at the beginning. As well as the horse stance. If saying about martial aspect this position seems to my unpractical. Only if you have any specific target - f.e. train your legs and its specific connections with the torso. That is why I asked orgasmic for the reason. But as we are in the Taoist thread here, I supposed that it is closer to qi gong than to karate, that is the reason of examples I posted I previous message. Again, my opinion is that every technic should be based on the target one has. Rgrds, Ilya

Do you have any goal while practicing this position? In qi gong all movements and positions are done for some reason. For example the tree allows to accumulate post heaven qi (if done correctly), some movements harmonize, some activate qi circulation etc. If you do smth just to look for what happens, then the result might be unpredictable. Look at this from the point that you try to do smth unknown for you with YOUR body. Rgrds, Ilya

Just before starting to implement your idea, I would advice you to: - work hard at least 8 hours a day 6 days a week for 6 months - exclude any contacts with women - make your food twice more modest - start to study Taoist texts - start being ready to do everything you are asked - start being ready to have no secret practice for a long long time - forget about free time If after this you will sill intent to enter the monastery, then may be it is good time to ask yourself the last question: what benefits you want to obtain? Rgrds, Ilya

I thought that Taoism is also a system and practices, practitioners. I hardly believe it is possible to create such texts only based on believes and having no achievements in practice. Rgrds, Ilya

To my understanding a torn line in the middle of the first trigramm means smth like a broken whole or smth divided or unperfect. This schematic visualization does not give a description but shows the difference. Rgrds, Ilya

The issue in the question of chargeable teaching is that it is difficult to differ the true teacher vs a commercial dealer. From my point of view this is more actual problem then discussing if true teachers should or should not take money for teaching. Rgrds, Ilya

I'd better follow classic Taoist concept about 3 treasures - jing, qi and shen. In its 'yuan' condition shen seems to me an initial spirit that comes to a body when it is only have been created by future parents. Rgrds, Ilya

Lets look at this from pragmatic side - if teacher does not take money then he goes to do some job instead of giving his knowledge to disciples. Imagine for a while that ALL teachers don't take money (f.e. taking money for spirichual teachings etc. becomes strictly prohibited...). Then people's opportunities to receive this kind of knowledge stream to a minimum. Is it what Budda, Huandi and other great patriarchs wanted to achieve? Rgrds, Ilya

The case with Hitler is incorrect because my grandparents met each other in that war and if I could kill Hitler then I would not exist, therefore could not write my previous post and you would not ask me about this. :) Looking seriously at the question o harm, I do believe that everything happening does not have an absolute polar good/bad scale, and that is why wa are not able to say smth for sure. This means that whatever I say (or anyone says) about karma and afterlife perspectives can be true or not. That is why I better agree with Taoism that one should develop his spirit and body in this particular life, because his expectations of the future can be just illusions. Rgrds, Ilya

If you are sure you will have any kind of life, then may be death is not an evil to you. Again, lets suppose that after death there are several options: - no life at all, then from my point death is an absolute evil - life in worse conditions (hell, ghost etc), then death seems also evil to me - life in some analogue quality or better (human, gods etc), then death is not an evil or at least not an absolute evil. But how can someone know for sure what point he might reach after death??? Here we come to Taoist approach that it is preferable at least to try to do something in this life in terms of development... Otherwise we can have an unpredictable final. And from this point of view I think that everything that can lead to death has an evil nature. Rgrds, Ilya

What is a concrete harm I think is anything that leads to death. May be there will be lots of discussion about it but I mean death without any possible reincarnation, so it is the end of ones life in any case. Rgrds, Ilya