adept

Yeah, it's kinda sad when it goes off-topic. I would say that there is a cross-over in these practices. A lot of the Shaolin arts became fused with Daoist practices and vice versa. For instance, Baduanjin has lots of variations, Daoist and Shaolin. I practice a Shaolin version myself. Not all Daoist meditative practices are concerned with MCO etc. And not all Shaolin arts are hard qigong either.

Don't try to defeat or battle them, you'll only make things 10x worse. Mindfulness and awareness are what's needed here. Any physical qigong/internal martial arts practice coupled with a mindfulness meditation method such as anapana or vipassana may help.

You already have a thread on this ! http://thetaobums.com/topic/27084-buddhist-and-taoist-energy-cultivation-differences/

http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/01/indian-buddhism-birch-bark-treasures/ Excellent article on this historic find. We may look at the written tradition of Buddhism differently once these are translated (21 years !)

What Seth said above. Unfortunately this is a racist, bigoted cult with hero worship on a grand scale. Like a mini North Korea

It may seem difficult at first but persevere. Read it again and again. Let it absorb into you. Put it down, leave it for a few weeks, months etc. Then come back to it and see how it reads.

Only if you have the Thomas Cleary version.

Thanks for all this Drew. You're blog is fantastic by the way.

Neidan is internal alchemy, not qigong. Maybe you're confusing neigong for neidan.

Yes, and that.

Nice ! Cats are the ultimate zen/dao masters. They do only what is necessary and conserve their energy.

Thanks konchog uma. That's brilliant. PM sent.

I'm interested in learning kuji-in. What's the most accessible route for self-learning ? Are there any decent books or websites geared to the absolute beginner ?

Nice stuff GMP.

What if there's nothing to figure out ? Our heads tend to hurt with all the endless questions to which there is no satisfactory answer. I think if we focus too much on the hypotheticals, we miss out on actually living.

The questions are more important than the answers. The truth is what you make it. The journey and the destination are one. Best wishes.

I remember when I was a small boy I was fascinated by nature. My father and grandfather would take me and my brother out for walks in the country for the day. The hills, rivers, the wide open sky. The beasts, birds, plants. Staring into the cosmos on a clear black night for hours on end. Just wondering and questioning. Never having an 'answer', but not needing one either. The wonder of creation was enough. What happened to all that innocent wonder ? I guess, now, I'm trying to find a way to re-connect to that feeling. I'm stumbling along but hope one day to return to that childlike innocence.

Now, how the hell are we going to get home ? Welcome back Lin.

The David Icke forum has less quacks than this place !

He's insecure perhaps ?

http://www.embracedbylife.com/welcome/

More from Jeff: WORKING IT OUT Face it. Your life is never going to work out. Hallelujah. That is, the story of your life is always going to be imperfect. That's the nature of story - always incomplete, always searching for a conclusion, always bound to time and change. In the movie of your life, thing won't always go according to plan. People won't always understand you. They will mishear, misquote, and misrepresent you. They will form their own idea and opinion of you, no matter how clearly you try to represent yourself. Your success can turn to failure. Your wealth can turn to poverty. The ones you love can leave you. Problems that get fixed can lead to new problems. No matter how much you have, you can have more, or lose more. It's never going to work out in the story of "my life". And even if it does work out, whatever that means to you, you will still be here, in this moment, now. This is the only place where things can 'work out', if they ever do. And in fact, things have already worked out, beyond the story. For in this moment, there is no goal, no image of perfection, no comparison, no 'should' or 'should not', and the thoughts, sensations, feelings, sounds and smells appearing right now are entirely appropriate, wonderfully fitting, beautifully timely, and totally welcome, for this moment in the movie. Without a script, how can this moment be wrong? Without a plan, how can life not go according to plan? Realising that your life is never going to work out, and that it cannot ever work out, and that it isn't supposed to work out, is the greatest relief, and brings the greatest ease, drawing you deeply into the sacredness of things as they actually are. Your life may be an imperfect mess, but it is an imperfect mess that is perfectly divine - a work of sacred art, even if you forget that sometimes. Humiliation turns to humility in the space of just a heartbeat, and all that's left is to fall on your knees with gratitude for what is given, and what has not yet been taken away.

Ahh, the old red palm trick ! I love doing that to qi skeptics.

alwayson, you need to check all the posts you've made in this thread. I think you've missed a few where you click the Like This button.

Why do you do this to every f..ing topic ? To add to your ridiculously large post count ? If you have nothing of value to add to the discussion, stay away. You're not funny, you're boring.