freeform

Xing-Ming building qi, Dantien, clearing channels etc - that’s the Ming side of the practice… the Xing side is developing virtue, humility, awareness, transforming the heart-mind etc. At the start Xing and Ming are separate categories of practice… but eventually as the mind is transformed, they start to combine… Once you reorient your cultivation towards spirit, the qi you build starts to support the flourishing of the Original Self rather than the Acquired Self.

The DDJ is not ‘facts’… The Bible is not ‘facts’… Poetry is not facts… Two ‘experts’ that were quote by you and Cobie had directly contradictory translations of the same simple source text… If DDJ was close to being factual - then there wouldn’t need to be so many translations, interpretations, disagreements and commentaries on it. Mathematics is pretty factual - not many experts disagreeing about multiplication and division… The DDJ is not maths… to think that it is puts you in the same camp as fundamentalists that believe that the bible is factual and that the world was created in 7 days and dinosaur bones were placed by god to test our faith or something.

And counting on knotted rope instead of an abacus… oh and a bit of genocide too (you know - to lower the population to appropriate levels)… the other sagely wisdom of Lao Tzu… apparently. It always surprises me that people don’t assume there’s a deeper level of meaning in texts like these… Not to mention the denial of the level of subjective interpretation going on. Even the ‘expert sinologists’ seem confused whether it’s talking about machines that can do the work of 10,000 men or its talking about weapons… Like chatGPT many of us are very certain of our views on texts that were translated in many different ways by many different people - most of whom are simply academics who have engaged heavily with languages - but never touched Dao.

Ahh yes. The well known objective ‘clarity’ of spiritual texts If you feel there’s not a shred of subjective interpretation happening in your reading of the (translation of) text (or the translators who translated it for you)… Then, of course, the discussion is over - just as it would be had you insisted that the world was created in 7 days…

Interesting. I see it very differently. I don’t think Lao Tzu was ever interested in the ‘old way of doing’ things… Would he really be aghast or disturbed by anything out there? I personally believe that what he’s communicating is that living a simple life is not predicated on external circumstances… the simple life is lived internally… not externally. What makes the DDJ so timeless is that it focuses on the inner microcosm… not the outer appearances. You can be living a subsistence lifestyle externally - but be in total turmoil internally… You can be living a life in modern society with all its turmoil and complexity, while inside you’re free, spontaneous and natural. But then again some people read the DDJ as a work of political advice 🤷 So I guess there are as many DDJs as there are readers of it.

Yeah sort of - just a very Daoist version of that 😅 What makes it Daoist is what I’ve seen Adam Mizner call ‘mind fluid’… your attention becomes like a substance that suffuses its object. What makes it ‘absorption’ (as I describe it) is that the ‘listener’ (or ‘observer’) starts to fade out and all that’s left is the object. So yes ‘the vertebrae observing itself’ is right… it’s like there remains nothing but the vertebra at the far extreme. Just as when you’re so absorbed in what you’re doing (playing music/knitting/writing code/some sort of sport) that ‘you’ fade away - and all that is left is what you’re doing. So in effect it’s two things: 1 -‘suffusion’ - meaning the depth of penetration of awareness. 2 - ‘absorption’ - the level to which one’s self is able to get out of the way.

The ZZ posture is the ‘holding the beachball’ style? Or arms down? I’d suggest stopping any static work and focusing on movement. Even just ordinary walking to start as long as that’s not adding to the pain. You should be able to resolve it - but avoid static work - and especially the arms lifted postures for a long while. If you can find a competent Tui Na practitioner, that may be helpful too.

Re-reading that quote - now seems a bit dramatic 😄 It’s dangerous not in an acute sort of way… you’re not likely to blow a fuse in your head or something (though never say never! 😅). It’s more a case of ‘be carful what you wish for’. More Qi means more ‘you’… If ‘you’ is a mostly wholesome process then that’s great. If ‘you’ isn't a pleasant experience - then you’ll know about it. In reality, most people who do manage to generate more than the ‘natural’ amount of qi will usually leak it - whether through emotion or hyperactivity or base desires or even literally leak the qi from various holes in the energy body. Basically - if you were able to genuinely generate a high surplus of qi, it will start to feel like you’re on some sort of drug… you can feel euphoric/confident/very vital and full of energy… It’s not subtle. Feeling this sort of euphoric high suggests that your system isn’t fully able to handle it… but I think that’s probably part of the process… everyone goes through that and regains balance… Kinda like when you’re new to exercise and you feel sore the next day means you’ve overshot your body’s balance… but it’s expected. If you have a genuine system and teacher that takes you beyond that then it’s probably safe

Is this really science or just an erotic fantasy you’ve got 🤔 😄

could you point me to some information from that tradition? (Books/teachers etc) - always curious about this stuff.

So you’ll be venturing out too I assume! 😄

It seems to be having the desired effects either way Interesting to hear other perspectives from other tantric traditions.

interesting. Does the inverted tongue position alter the digestive process? Or there’s some other methods? Ive had some ‘khechari mudra’ tongue positions occur spontaneously over a period of time - though to me it seemed more related to the central channel - or some related energetic circuit rather than stimulating the Amrita…

(Just to add that - I’m just messing around - I mean no disrespect whatsoever. I genuinely wish that someone like you, TT, with so much dedication to the arts could get a glimpse of what’s really possible… what’s being accomplished in living traditions right now. I realise that it might seem like I’ve been fooled or am delusional or something - but to me, from my POV, that’s just your justifications for keeping your status quo intact. So my teasing is only directed at those parts of you that seem stuck to me - that’s all. I wouldn’t go through the effort of engaging and re-engaging with you if there wasn’t an undercurrent of respect.)

😦 🤨 🤔 🤔 🤭 (sigh)