七星門

Hey now, don't judge me. XD

I didn't have to cut my left arm off to get a straight answer out of you, so that's something. "If sexual intercourse occurs during menstruation then the man will absorb the polluting essences of the woman and he will become polluted which results in penis sores and a condition called crushing red which results in other diseases and even death.” So metal.

Yes, but the question is not how they accomplished it, but how it can be accomplished today. What good is the practice if it's not, well...practiced? How do you avoid women during their menses? Applied as a general principle, does adhering to the practice of avoiding a woman while she's "unclean" then require a strict segregation of the sexes or dictate women quarantine themselves during their menses? As you can see promoting the one leads to something I think the average person would find somewhat undesirable, if not several giant leaps backwards for the progress most industrialized nations have made in women's equality. How do you apply this without being blatantly sexist?

Of interest, in Taoism and Chinese Religion collects all of Maspero's work that I've sampled piecemeal, I've found a reasonable answer. Robinet is erudite, but as I'm reading her Taoist Meditation I keep having to run down another side path to really understand what she's talking about. She makes a comment early in the book, something the effect of "Maspero has sufficiently covered breath work." Investigating this, I turn to the back of the book, his essay on Methods of Nourishing the Vital Principle, & the very first paragraphs succinctly speaks to my questions: "One of the most curious characteristics of Daoist religion is its constant and intimate intermingling of practises of a very absorbing public and private worship--mystical practices seeking concentration and ecstasy, and practises of moral life, almsgiving, teaching and so on--with practises which (even Daoists admit) have only a physiological value and interest: regimens of diet, sexual intercourse, breathing exercises, general gymnastics, and so on. To be sure, other religions also have their dietary practises, as well as sexual taboos or indulgences. But in other religions these practises always have a religious character which Daoism never gives them, although it attributes great importance to them and even makes the scrupulous observance of them an absolute condition for salvation. This peculiarity relates to the Daoists, very conception of salvation. For them salvation consists in obtaining Eternal Life or, to translate the Chinese expression literally, Long Life, changsheng 長生 , which they understood as a material immortality of the body itself. Naturally this does not mean that the Daoist religion claims to instruct all the faithful in the means of avoiding death entirely: not to die, in the strict sense, is the privilege of only a few of the most eminent saints. For ordinary believers, salvation consists in the fact that the apparent death of the body is followed by a material resurrection into an immortal body: this is what is called the Deliverance of the Corpse, shijie 尸解." As I'm reading this, the practices do not have an inherently virtuous character as we would consider them in, say Christianity, but are entirely salutary to effect the immortality of the body. Knock & it shall be opened, I suppose.

This is great. He seems to know what he's talking about, & I thank you for confirming he's both competent & ultra-orthodox, this was the first time I encountered this draconian code of conduct as a current practice. I'll take away what I can without rejecting it on the whole because of the objectionable bits. I also purchased purchased the Kindle edition for $5, the pictures are low-res but adequate & in the catalogue of Gods there are some misplaced/repeated, Ge Hong appears twice under the wrong dieties. There was also an odd choice to right-justify the text in the catalogue, at least on my device. Overall, well-worth $5. I am using his guidance to set up a little Daoist altar for my meditation & breath work, I dig Laozi so it's convenient that he holds a position in the celestial bureaucracy! I'll post pictures in a thread once it's complete. Thank you, very helpful & a relevant parallel to a model I already understand. I'll read through the threads as soon as I finish my coffee. As part of this learning process I'm hoping to find a way to reconcile transcendentalism & immanence, something Daoism with it's shamanic roots & hermetic evolution has somehow perhaps accomplished. These threads may start me on the way. It hadn't occurred to me that economic pressures shaped the practice of modern monastic practice, or the establishment of monasteries at all. I was trying to understand how we moved from the itinerant wanderer or man on the mountain ideal to being closed up in monasteries surrounded by exquisite wealth. I have already instituted a practice using Daoist techniques, bastardized though it may be! In all religions I tend to see the outer forms as a concretion of the primordial or philosophic principles, without which an experiential--& therefore intuitive--understanding is difficult. I appreciate all of your replies, I think I'll stick around.

That's the thing about science, a quick Google search on studies will confirm whatever conclusion you're determined to prove. I have epilepsy & follow a ketogenic diet, & similar claims can be found about it or the Mediterranean diet, etc. etc. You can, in fact, find studies that contradict all these claims of benefit. That's why proper research takes all of these into account & arrives at a greater synthesis. There's also a paucity of data on the benefits of celibacy. How do you determine which women you interact with daily are bleeding? All that said, I'm interested in a Daoist explanation since they have their own model to examine phenomena, rather than attempting to resort to our comfortable modern sciencism.

To be clear, you're saying Veganism, celibacy & avoiding women during their menses is essential?

Yet turbulent water disperses it's qi while the deep stillness of a pond collects & retains it.

Maybe just focus on stoking the fire of the lower dantian. Deep, slow, belly breathing, quiet like a baby. Focus on your innards below your navel. Before that's established making an orbit is premature. I'm not a TCM practitioner, but Long Gu (Dragon's Bone) tends to have a centripetal effect, pulling things together & stopping leakages. I use an alchemical preparation, couple drops twice a day. Worth a try if you can spare $25. http://www.al-qemi.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=196&zenid=6888f3236caac72414fed869180891b7

& your opinion on the proscriptions? Do they serve a purpose or are they simply norms particular to a place in time?

Interesting perspectives here, it's very supportive which is nice but how do you reconcile letting emotions run wild with cultivating stillness, taming the heart, etc?