yuuichi

@voidisyinyang what do you mean by left eye and right eye? From my perspective? Or looking at a diagram? You also said that the left vagus nerve is mainly afferent (and so the right is mainly efferent?), that’s the left vagus nerve on the same side as looking at my left hand?

Hi everyone, One of the most fundamental things in Daoist meditation is to place Water above Fire. I would like to discuss and try to understand this. Who said Water must be placed above Fire, and what exactly did they say? What is this Water? Does it have a description? What is this Fire, and does it have a description? Of course, generally the older the source of the quote which talks about this, the better (in my point of view). Thanks

I know about 100 daoist texts in the public domain that i’m interested in and it’s likely they will never be translated into english. This is because the cheapest rate of translation from chinese to english (cheapest doesn’t mean quality) would mean I would have to pay about 3,000 dollars to have all 100 daoist texts translated. I can afford to pay only about 5% of that because I’m quite poor. The 100 daoist texts contain about 300,000 characters, and the cheapest rate of translating that many characters would equal 3,000 dollars. Seriously, there are thousands of daoist texts out there, and barely none of them have been translated into english, except very few (zhuangzi, daodejing, etc).

So I have been vegetarian for a while, and celibate for about a month. When I meditate on my lower dantian (2-3 inches behind the navel), I can keep concentration there for a long time. After 20-30 minutes, everything feels numb. My arms and legs have lost all sensation and all I can perceive is my lower dantian. When I stop meditating and open my eyes, my body or lower dantian doesn’t feel any different at all. My mind feels more still, but that is the case after any meditation. I have been doing this for 2 weeks and despite my celibacy, I don’t feel like I have a lot of energy. I don’t feel like my lower dantian is full of energy. Also, I don’t know if I should do reverse abdominal breathing, abdominal breathing or regular breathing. Normally during meditation, the breath gets more subtle and barely moves the body. Perhaps abdominal breathing is more for qigong? Strangely, during meditation, reverse abdominal breathing feels more natural, but I don’t know if I’m supposed to do that.

You can easily find lists or catalogues of daoist literature through the centuries by searching for daoist books on chinese daoist websites. The vast majority of the titles are not freely available in english, nor have they been translated.

That’s where I originally looked.The cheapest I found was 500 characters for 5 dollars. Which would mean about 3,000 dollars for 300,000 characters.

I respectfully disagree. If you don’t have a destination, in what direction do you take the next step? If I don’t know the destination, the next step (incorrect practice) could be a dangerous one. So I’m asking this forum for any advice. Preferably from someone experienced enough to know what sensations I should feel, when following the correct practice. I’m sure the Daoist sages have described it too, but so few Daoist manuscripts and literature have been translated into english.

Would acupuncture help? Also, what am I supposed to feel? I heard some people say one should feel a warmth.

How did you learn chinese? I’ve always had trouble with grammar.

To clarify, I already speak and read Chinese. But to understand Daoist texts, you need to be a native speaker at least.

@Wu Ming Jen hey, thanks for your response. Sorry for not writing this before but I just saw your reply now. It’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one here with a fast metabolism! Anyway, I’m happy to report that although i’m still thin, I have reached a healthy weight. My method is eating lots and lots of cream, and adding lots of olive oil or butter to meals

I am someone with a very fast metabolism and like many young men my age, I have a very hard time gaining weight and gaining fat. Cooking a good, healthy meal takes so long. Like 1 hour out of my day. So cooking 3 healthy meals a day takes 3-4 hours out of my day. But I don’t want to cook unhealthy quick meals. Even cooking a simple rice pudding takes almost an hour, and I have to stay near it and continuously stir it all the time. So what I sometimes do is make a lot of fried rice in the morning, refrigerate what I didn’t eat for breakfast and continue to eat it throughout the day. But I don’t want to eat fried rice every day. It’s quite dry and gets boring after a while. Does anyone have any good ways to get fat quickly, but in a healthy way, without complicated ingredients and without too much time required?

Hey, sorry if this website isn’t the place to ask for dating advice, but I don’t really use other websites and it seems a lot of men here have a wife, which is surprising. Anyway, I’m friends with a woman and we get along really well, by that I mean we share the same interests and personalities. I know sometimes in this situation, the woman may start to fall in love with the man who she is friends with. But that seems to be the case only if she was physically attracted to him in the first place. In most cases, I think she would reject his romantic gestures and decide to only be friends. Am I right in my assumption? That if she isn’t initially physically attracted to her male friend, it is unlikely they will start dating in the future, even if they get along as friends? Thank you.

For replenishing a kidney, heart and liver yin qi deficiency, or a blood qi deficiency, is congee better than porridge? If so, why? Porridge and congee seem to be basically the same to me.

thanks for the responses guys.

So what everyone is saying is that if there isn’t physical attraction to begin with, then there can be no attraction (or potential to date each other) in the future?

Just an assumption of mine.

?

According to traditional chinese medicine, I have a deficiency in yin, resulting in symptoms displaying a deficiency of yin. To replenish yin, most doctors give herbs. Could it instead be replenished with Buddhist meditation?

I likely have a (kidney) yin deficiency from birth, since I have always shown symptoms of it (always being underweight, finding it hard to gain weight, always have a dry mouth, dry skin, etc), and this is what a qualified traditional chinese medicine practitioner thought I have. My diet for most of my life has always had less salt than average because I always cook homemade meals, adding only a small amount of salt. Since it’s seasonal to have meat and salt during winter, and there is only 1 month of winter left, would having a lot of meat, dairy, salty foods and drinking a lot of warm water during this month cure my yin deficiency?

Isn’t that just a ketogenic diet (no carbohydrates)?

@vonkrankenhaus you say less volatile foods and more foods with substance, but aren’t most vegetables yang? And you and others also said to eat soup, but would soup be considered food with substance?

Meat isn’t unhealthy. I saw her last year but now she doesn’t practice anymore so I can’t visit her.

A traditional chinese medicine practitioner says I have a kidney yin deficiency by checking my pulse and tongue. I’ve never heard of goji berries and I doubt I’ll find them in my supermarket.

Not literally of course, but I am diagnosed to have a kidney yin deficiency. For all my life, I have always: Woken up each morning thirsty or with a dry mouth, Sleep late or have trouble sleeping, I have a lot of trouble gaining weight (I am tall and thin), My tongue has always been red. However, these are also the symptoms of hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid). I had my thyroid tested 2 years ago, and 2 years before that, because thyroid problems run in the family. But my thyroid has always been fine. But I display all the symptoms of an overactive thyroid so a lot of people always ask me to get my thyroid checked.