exorcist_1699

Zen's exploring of emptiness is like a dull and hard process of digging a well with low water level , only having reached certain point do you find its immense benefits , unfortunately hardly can you know where it is ; in fact, many strange koans are the request of approval from a junior practitioner towards a senior master . On the other hand, Taoist proofs are not limited to spiritual aspects , and can be something physical , so it is easier to follow.

Yeah, it is quite a blame of Taoist on Buddhism . I think any serious Buddhist should think about Taoist criticism on Buddhist limitation to Xing practice only . On the other hand , any Taoist should take it seriously about Buddhist criticism on Taoist attachment to jing and qi , in fact , any post-heavenly mind typed of focusing on jing and qi likely smother their development .

I hope you talked to me ?

Taoist famous poem: "自古神仙無別法, 只生觀喜不生愁" " To become an immortal you get no other ways, but to rejoice and have no negative emotional state"

In fact, at every jing-qi-shen level , each of them is classified into yin and yang : You have yang-jing , risen in a mindless state but given you sex pleasure , that can lead you to immortality while yin-jing , appears as the result of some repeated, compulsory symptoms that can only lead you to weary and death. While yang-qi gives you unlimited energy , moral confidence and a disease-proof body , yin-qi can only give you wrinkles, pains and unknown tumors. Finally you get the classification of shen into yin and yang , which is unique as no other cultures get such a classification of the human spirit, and it can be important : 1) While yang-shen is the outcome of a lifelong accumulation and refinement of jing and qi, yin-shen is a lonely struggle for itself ; so despite how much tears and blood , shame and glory , defeat and success .. a person struggles in his whole life , unable to identify what jing and qi are and make use of them , all his efforts to control his own destiny will inevitably come to an end at some moment, and he is forced to leave , regardless of so many regrets left behind. 2) Although both yang-shen and yin-shen can exist outside the physical body, it is yin-shen that is to leave in a passive and reluctant way ,say in case of death or critical condition ; yang-shen's leave of the physical body is a natural outcome, even a deliberate one , like a mature fruit leaving its mother tree: Enough jing and qi have been accumulated , it is time possible to leave and make contact with the external , immense qi and explore the meaning of life in this universe . 3) Yang-shen can appear under the Sun without shadow while yin-shen always has to escape from It ; 4) Although both yin-shen and yang-shen can travel at instant speed , it is yang-shen that can split : At an instant , there can be many sprites of a yang-shen doing different things.

"Baidu " ( "百度") is the Chinese Google. Its name likely comes from the famous poem : " 眾裏尋他千百度.. ". Although Zhao Bi Chen is said to have written several books, the only one we can now find is " 性命法訣明指" . All mentioned books can be found online as said.

Blaming modern Taoists of hiding the secret for attaining immortality is not so fair, at least books written in the Ching Dynasty and the Nationalist period ( 1911-1949 ) are already very explicit . That means, most of original secrets are now in black and white ; the prevailing reproach from the West is somewhat biased or mainly due to the fact that most of these books are either unknown to the West or have not been translated into English , which then is not solely the responsibility of the Chinese Taoists. Notice that these books are mostly written in classical Chinese, and they are , of course , much better than any books published in the West in recent decades ( students of acupuncture or traditional Chinese medicine likely understand what I claim..) ; anyway , apart from those books from the Wu-Liu schools and those from Zhao Bi Chen, which are known to some members of this forum , the following books are worthy of paying attention to : - 大成捷要 ( Da Cheng Jie Yao) - 補虧正法 - 地仙玄門秘訣 - 養真集 - 樂育堂語錄 You can 'baidu ' them to get a copy .

The refined , self-conscious form of qi can be called shen ; At the so-called pre-heavenly level /stage, jing , qi and shen are something united , and because they are so fundamental to life and formless , we add the term "yuan" ( original / basic ) to them . At post-heavenly level/ stage, when they are embodied in a physical body, they split but still related to each other . For example, any deficiency of jing makes people tired , not wanting to move ; any deficiency of qi makes people lose their memory , even faint ..etc. When we accumulate jing in our body , we also aggregate our qi ; the stuff embedded in qi that gives you sex pleasure , feelings of having endless energy , capable of understanding anything ..etc can be identified as jing .

It is said that Damo , the guy who initialize the Chinese Zen movement, when leaving the southern India on his trip to China by boat more than thousand years ago, told people that it was because of the shrinkage of the Indian mind and the great atmosphere ( " 大乘氣象") he saw in the East that introduced him to go . Believe , or just interested in Taoism , nowadays requires some insight, not only because it is somewhat against common sense , but also because of the growing dominance of scientism . At the place where people's mind are shrinking of course you find Taoist truth falling on dead ears .

I don't know anything about secrets in martial arts, what I want to talk about here is the secret of Taoist alchemy . Likely something you have to keep for thousands of years , I think , as secret is something of extreme importance , something having top secret character , not anything ordinary in some expertise . It is all about physical immortality . On this planet , there are only two groups of people who dare to talk about physical immortality : The scientists who think that by some kind of DNA engineering , or by growing human organs in a laboratory , someday in future, maybe just few decades away, they can grant immortality to humans . Another group of people is called Taoists, whom can be viewed as the most weird people ever lived or living , who claim that they already succeeded physical immortality thousands years ago ; although not believing in the existence of any Creator of this universe , they believe in qi , and its delicate form , shen ,that can give people immortality . So, to be fair , they are guys/ women not religious. Both of them have followers , but comparing to believers in Science , number of believers in Taoism is shrinking .. I mean, on the Mainland China. Both of them are also brave because whenever you talk about physical immortality, people ask for proofs. Taoists are not reluctant to give you proofs, but they are reluctant to give you all secrets to attain them. It is first about jing , the stuff that qi based on; or more precisely speaking , about the Yuan-jing(" 元精 " ) or meta-jing ; The principle is that with enough jing in your body, you will never die ( being hit and killed by an airplane crashed into your house is another story ) , but how to accumulate it can be very tricky ..

Although the "chakra" system looks similar to Taoist dantians , for example, locations of the lower dantian and upper dantian quite match the positions of chakras, there are some big differences between them : 1) There is no jing-qi-Shen framework in the Indian system . In Taoist system ,the lower dantian is said to be the place where you cultivate jing, and at the upper dantian , a place you cultivate Shen. And there are intricate relations between them, not just a change of position. 2) In the Indian system ,there are no yin and yang concepts to which Taoism repeatedly refers as something crucial . For example, a spirit or consciousness , despite having got powerful 3rd eye abilities , as long as it not having refined by yang-qi , is called yin-shen and to the final analysis , is something worthless and futile . It is the yang Shen that we are eager to attain. 3) There are no post-heavenly and pre-heavenly concepts in the Indian systems. In Taoist system , while an area where post-heavenly qi arises is called dantian, an indefinite place where pre-heavenly qi arise is called "Magic Gateway " (' 玄關') ; one is for curing diseases or delaying aging , one is for immortality , hardly any mixed up . 4) In the Taoist system , Yi's trigrams (' 易卦') are heavily used to describe different phases of our practice and life scenarios , which you unlikely find anything similar in the Chakra system . For example , there is one important trigram pair , the upper Li (fire) --- lower Kan (water ) trigram , pointing out to us the fatal , vulnerable human status in which most people situated ,yet is the starting point where they begin their practice.

If you are a woman, then it is partly true : Using middle dantian ( refer not to the heart) as a starting point, and it initializes something from lower dantian . Otherwise it is doubtful .

Noted. Thanks your appreciation . 1699 in Cantonese sounds ‘forever’, this is the reason why...

A way-less Way is still a way , maybe a much superior way ; a mindless mind is still a Mind, maybe a much magnificent Mind ("法本法無法, 無法法亦法" ; "心本法無心, 無心心亦心," ) Ways of Taoist alchemy do divide into low, middle and superior ones (上、中、下品丹法) , which Taoist writings repeatedly emphasize . Saying that different methods/ways suit different people is just a polite way to evade arguments or to avoid being viewed as arrogant. In fact, a low-end way can only lead you to a healthy body , hardly can it let you attain everlasting life.

Hardly can I agree to the ‘gate of sleep’ , it likely be something from the Buddhist practice. From taoist perspective, If your qi and Shen become full, then you sleep less or not sleep at all naturally , otherwise sleep as long as you need. The saying about ‘ the evil of sleep’ (‘睡魔’ ) , to me, is doubtful . To young guys , an erection that always emerges after sleeping undoubtedly proves an existence of yang , which is some kind of good sign . Old guys can’ t sleep long hours, and, even they sleep long hours , hardly can they get an erection after it. Capable of resuming it is one of the criteria showing how well you cultivate . Likely Buddhist practitioners ignore it, even laugh at it, but careful Taoist practitioners know better..

In fact, nose tip is a place difficult to pinpoint ; you are asked to focus on somewhere, but led to nowhere. Nose tip is just a place transitional . Capable of skilfully making use of emptiness /nowhere at certain stage of our cultivation is one of the significance of the West School.

A lineage worthy of study should be one different from what people nowadays always coming across easily in the parks or on the internet : A gong composed of a series of postures ,likely accompanied with certain ways of breathing, and boasted of what amazing healing effects it has. Although most of them name themselves beautifully ,says XXX-gong ,they are in fact some kind of copies or mediocre revisions originated from those TCM medical qi-gong writings. A Taoist lineage worthy of paying attention to should get some unique ideas that enable us to look deeper at Taoist principles or gives us a different perspective on some ideas ,not to mention its always having outstanding creators, for example, the Wu-Liu School was established by Wu and Liu, a monk-turned Taoist who not only likes quoting tons of Buddhist phrases in his writings, but also due to his background , raises the issue about the importance jing leakage in spiritual cultivation; in fact, jing leakage is not only important in Taoism, but also in Buddhism ; maybe also in all other religions as most of them emphasize asceticism , yet unable to tell you exactly why . Or, in the West School its creator , Li xi-Yue, claims himself as a reincarnation of the creator of the East School,Lu xi-Xing, coming back only to finish his unfinished job. Notice that in Taoism, different from what you see in Tibetan heritage , reincarnation is hardly anything positive. A master should be smart and resolute enough to complete his job of turning into an immortal in one life-time, not in several ones. Besides, the starting point of the West school is also strange, different from most schools: Followers are asked to have their eyes focus on their noses' tips , that means on the boundary of the body where it is neither inside nor outside, neither attached to eyesight nor smell ; and although close to the upper dantian , it has fewer of its defects .

I think people have to be reminded that TCM's concepts about jing, qi, shen are different from those of the Taoist alchemy . For example, when Taoist alchemy talks about the pre-heavenly jing, it refers to some kind of energy, always accompanied with sex pressure, arisen from a Mindless state , that can cure many diseases and enhance our mind ...etc ( for at pre-heavenly level, jing ,qi and Shen are a unity, inseparable ), while TCM always refers it as something pre-natal , mostly related to whether our parents are healthy or strong enough or not..

Most Taoist alchemist writings don't give people a clear guideline with concrete steps towards attaining Dan, especially those written before the Ching Dynasty . Wu-Liu's are the more the detailed and precise , yet at certain key points, the explanation still appear evasive (deliberately ? ) ..

Lower dantian is the place for refining jing to qi, not the place for nourishing the fetus; note that it is only after qi and shen having their intercourse, does a fetus appear ; if people can't complete the job of refining jing to qi , then maybe they will keep staying at the lower dantian , even for whole life. In fact, most of the people can't understand what the mindless Mind is is because their incapability in solving the issue of jing leakage . Even if they deliberately start from the upper dantian , it doesn't necessarily mean they can finish the job of attaining shen quicker or easier . The key is not about the location, nor the posture of your body, nor how you breathe, but what mind you get . For what mind you get determines what way you breathe, what life you live. As an immortal tells us : " Those whose minds succumbed to life scenarios are called ordinary people , those who have life scenarios killed by their Mind are called Immortals " "境殺心則凡, 心殺境則仙" (郝太古) Apart from the lower , middle and upper dantian , there is a place where the fetus being nourished , plus another place where the grown up baby coming out of the head , all are referred to as different areas at different stages , so people shouldn't mix up them.

Building up the lower dantian well means you can refine jing into qi cleanly , which also implies your having successfully stopped leaking most jing or any jing , then of course you will be entering the stage of refining qi into shen . At that stage, you can easily eliminate the ups and downs of your minds ...concretely speaking , when your qi rises to the top , the energetic form of qi will turn into some spiritual form of Oneness, of course, you have to grasp that moment to consolidate it, extend it .... At the stage of refining jing into qi, the feelings of jing and qi symptoms are significant ; at the stage of refining qi into shen , it is the ' feeling' of shen , a mighty mindless Mind , that will be dominant : for example , hardly can you get angry so easily because of others' criticisms , unsettled by adversity and uncertainties in life or perplexed by any difficult intellectual problems .

The principle is : Wherever the yang qi arises , wherever you should focus your mind on . So, if you are a man, you start by paying attention to your lower dantian ; if you are a woman, you focus your mind to the middle dantian ( place in between your breasts) . However, hardly does paying attention to the upper dantian help you initializing the yang qi , nor does it help you 'consolidating' your mind ( conversely it is what the lower dantian does) ; and, no consolidation of the mind means no possibility of any 3rd-eye . So starting from the upper dantian , a way introduced by the book " Secret of the Golden flower" , is really something strange . Maybe one of reasons is the popularity of the book ... that means, once there was a Westerner who accidentally found a strange Taoist book at a marketplace of China, translated it , long before anyone had got a grasp of the basic theory of Taoism , and unfortunately the book then becomes so famous , making them distracted .

This is similar to Taoist saying : " Using yang in the trigram Kan to grasp and settle the yin in the trigram Li ( on top) " (" 以坎中一陽, 點化離中一陰" ) .　 But likely Taoist interpretation of the human status is deeper. However , claiming that " Enlightenment is our normal, natural state of mind. " is absolutely wrong , a typical Buddhist ,or Zen's overstatement ,coming from Buddhist saying: " Everyone has a Buddha Mind hidden " ... . Not only because our post-heavenly mind ,our daily consciousness , is something the yin of the trigram Li, but also because it is hijacked by a karma-borne incoming spirit , so without the help of yang from the Kan , hardly can most people " awake " and understand what a mindless Mind is , no matter how hard they try .

Practitioners of Tao have to know the basic principles of TCM , which says that the outlet of kidney is ears ( and , the outlet of liver is the eyes) , so listening too much or too long time of music does lead to depletion of jing (similarly watching too much TV or reading too many books leads to the depletion of eyesight ) ,which inevitably affects the progress of our practice . Conversely , rubbing some part of the ears, or its proximity, helps you replenish the lost jing.

Through intercourse , certain amount of yang jing (pre-heavenly qi ) was absorbed into a woman's body ,and with her breathing and nourishment , a fetus grew into a baby and after 10 months, the baby was born; notice that a spirit /soul only comes into the baby at the moment when it comes into the world , and it is said that its soft forehead is the gateway for this incoming alien . After our birth, the originally united , pre-heavenly qi starts to split into jing, qi and shen : While jing and qi settle down to the lower part of our body , shen rises to the top; the gradual distraction of shen and its further attachment to senses as we grow up gives rise to the thing we call consciousness , a pseudo-self , which is in fact a mixture of the incoming , karma-borne spirit and a distracted ,lost mind who hardly knows of anything about itself . As a famous Taoist saying tells us : ＂　海枯可見底, 人死不知心＂ （＂While you can see the bottom of the sea when it dries up, never can a man knows his Mind even at the point of his death")