Hi.
Thanks for welcoming me to your forum. I've been looking for more people to talk with about
the topics that interest you for a long time. I have a lot of experience, and some skill and knowledge
in many of the topic areas you discuss here, including meditation, qi gong, tai ji, alchemy, buddhism
and philosophy in general.
At the moment I am especially interested in alchemy. I have been "turning around the light" in meditation
and daily activity, mainly for the last six weeks (if you don't count my years of qi gong practice :-)) and
it has affected me profoundly and well, and I seem to be having some experiences I am tempted to interpret
as getting very close to awareness of reality. I let go of most thoughts and feelings automatically, without
effort now, and I can let go of the effort to let go too, with some effort, lol. I and I reach a place of great
stillness and openness for some time, although I still struggle with the distraction of my posture.
And I do not feel confident that I am not-doing it correctly, in terms of adopting the state of mind that will
lead to restoration. Having a thoughtless mind is one thing. But there are many different ways to be thoughtless.
I have read Liu I-ming and other masters carefully and I believe I understand most of the subtle errors they describe,
but I am also becoming confused by too many ideas in my head from ancient Taoist texts!
But anyway, my point is . . .
I would really like to discuss this with any others who understand the things I am talking about. :-)
love,
me