exorcist_1699

1) From Taoist criterion , even "the spirit is tranquil and unperturbed " ,and even it having some supernatural ability through some training , for example, capable of predicting things happen in future, is still entangled in the realm of yin ; it is only after having this spirit refined by the incoming pre-heavenly qi , and nourished it for some period of time inside us, can this yin-typed of spirit become something yang or pure yang ; although both can show us an ability of detaching from the physical body , the yin-typed spirit's fate of leaving it , different from the Taoist real independent one , always leads to death , not any real achievement . So, from the Taoist point of view ,say the Tibetan way of transmigration (ie, keep having the need of making use of the physical body ) , is hardly any kind of significant achievement . 2)The saying : "taking the yang from the water trigram (one yang surrounded by two yin) to put in place of the middle of the fire trigram (one yin surrounded by two yang)." , in fact, is to teach us how to make use of the post-heavenly intercourse between yin and yang so as to assimilate the pre-heavenly yang qi inside us ; please notice that at pre-heavenly level, of course, jing, qi and shen is not split .

In Taoism and TCM , the yin and yang construction is , in fact , a system composed of multi-levels ; thing that is defined as yin at certain level can be viewed as yang from other level .For example , we humans consist of a physical body and the qi that motivates it , and while the material part is defined as yin , qi, the functional and energetic part is defined as yang; however, when we go down to its physical level, the body can further be divided into yin and yang : head as yang, abdomen as yin; back and shoulder as yang, front breast as yin ; external side as yang, internal side as yin..etc. Similarly, viewing from a higher level , say from the level of pre-heavenly qi, qi that exists inside our body ( those flowing in the channels and organs , or as a shield that safeguards us ) , whatever forms they are, are yin-typed . A reading of TCM writings will give you a detailed classification of them , which not only covering our body , but those herbs being used and all other natural things. In Taoist alchemy, because its main goal is to teach people how to attain their personal eternity and freedom, not to cure people 's diseases on daily basis, so there is no need to go into those complicated levels where diseases arise , and analyze them ; the pre and post-heavenly framework plus the related yin/ yang classification (ie, the famous saying of " 二重天地, 四個陰陽" ( "two levels of heaven and four different kinds of yin and yang" ) ) , together with the jing-qi-shen process is enough to explain everything. But why saying that qi inside us is yin-typed, why saying that the pre-heavenly qi outside us is yang or pure yang ? The reason is : Qi that lives inside us is something of an internalized lump sum , limited by the physical body , and its deteriorating nature means a fixed vector pointing towards a doomed end, ie , death . In a word , post-heavenly qi is something limited in space and time ; pure yang-typed of pre-heavenly qi ,on the other hand, is free of such limitations ; attain it means going beyond time and space... The only solution that can rescue us out of such a post-heavenly predicament lies in the deeply hidden yang-typed of jing (陽精) ; as the ancient Taoist masters implicitly say : 趙緣督： " 一點陽精，秘在形山，不在心腎，而在乎玄關一竅 ". （Zhao Yuan Du says: " there is a little of yang-typed of jing deeply hidden in us , not inbetween the kidneys or at the heart, but in the Magic gateway " ); 李道純：" 留得陽精，個個長生 ＂. ( Li Dao Chun says: " whoever capable of retaining this yang jing , whoever lives forever". ) Our spirit, this short-lived, being limited by a physical body, entangled by partial intelligence , full of worries and annoyances, one , is also classified as yin for the same reason.

In fact, in China, during its long history, there are three different kinds of people who talk about qi in different senses with varied emphasis: 1) Confucian moralist : They view qi as the basis of all morals; they believe that without having ourselves equipped with qi, hardly can we not succumb to vanity and material interest. 2) TCM doctors : They are concerned with how qi works in our body , how it becomes imbalanced and how to use herbs or needles to regulate it. 3) Taoist alchemists: They know qi 's character much deeper than the TCM doctors, and are not only concerned qi that flow in the channels and organs of our body ( the post-heavenly ones) , but also the pre-heavenly qi , the Meta_one ( you can call it the metaphysical one) that they think hide deeper in us, being the source of all kinds of qi; Besides believing that qi has an ability to heal, they also agree with the Confucian moralists that qi does have its moral character.

The big red Chinese character means " Longevity" , all other characters at the background also meas " longevity" , but are the various styles /old forms of the same character .

You mean the meaning of " 灵宝" or content of the Sutra ? Although it calls itself "经" , judging from the content I get from "baidu" it , I think it is a piece of Taoist writings. " 灵宝" means it is a " Precious and spiritually effective/workable " piece of Sutra.

People can get the knowledge through: 1) their own practice, not necesarily meditation, but other practices such as Taiji. 2) Taoist and TCM classics; 3) TCM's medical cases which have accumulated and amounted to millions of them after a time span of 2,000 years. Because TCM's analysis of diseases and related symtons are under the framework of yin/yang, jing-qi-shen and five-element, reading those material is helpful for our understanding of what life is. Just like a study of a damaged brain can tell you a lot about how our brain works, a study of qi in its unbalanced form or jing in its deficient status , can tell you a lot about what jing,qi, shen and their inter-relations are . For example, deficiency of jing can lead to difficulty in breathing...etc Of course, some of those phenomena are observable, but not in that sense of being done by an objective observer , strictly requested by modern science.

What Taoist alchemy pays attention to are jing , qi and shen, the basic elements of human life, and their complicated relations ; in fact, most are already fully explained by the TCM and Taoist writings. I have to say , neither jing nor qi can be the objects of study in Western science, if they can be, then people should have already found the mechanism of acupuncture because qi, for example, has already been under modern science's study for more than 70 years; so, the further development of science is unrelated to what our concern here : What is the essence of life ? And ,how to extend and strengthen it ? Taoists, in fact, understand the essence of human breathing much deeper ( of course, also earlier ) than the Western science. For example, in TCM , we are told that our breathing is not controlled by our lung as it appears , but in an area called Mengmen ( 命門),located inbetween our kidneys; In Taoist alchemical terms, the origin and capability of our breathing of air/oxygen ( post-natal form) comes from the so-called " pre-natal " qi . (Please note that qi is not equivalent to air or oxygen; pre-natal way of breathing ( of qi) can be initialized by our having entered a state of very deep meditation.. ); Western science, at least, in the realm of what happens in human body , is limited by what her insistence on studying things observable , things measureable... yet , if life's essence is something beyond the reach of test tube or those apparatus of measurement, then I have to ask : " What can science do ?" I know little about fengshu, so I can't reply question related to that aspect . External and Internal alchemy: a topic too big to tell here, I will try to explore it under a new topic in future.

The following is a list of the Chinese Taoist alchemical writings .You can find most of the original copies of them on Baidu by inputing the book's name . Baidu accepts both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, ignoring what way: Pinyin or five-stroke , for example ,you input them : 1)周易參同契 2)悟真篇 3)黃庭經 4)鍾呂傳道集 5)太乙金華宗旨 6)丹陽真人語錄 7)規中指南 8)中和集 9)金丹大要 10)道言淺近說 11)玄膚論 12)唱道真言 13)伍柳仙宗 14)性命法訣明指 15)性命圭旨 16)修真辨難

Hi, ChiDragon, Thank your ideas. I have to think them over and will try reply you later , a little tired this moment...

There is no need to use any scientific ideas or methods to investigate Tao or Taoist alchemy, it doesn't help but conversely bar you from advancing . The best approach is the yin/yang theory plus the jing-qi-shen frameawork having been used for over 2,000 years in the Taoist legacy. It sounds arbitrary and arrogant, but I will try to show you why it is not.. Some bias must be smashed and some issues must be seriously considered so that you can understand me; I can't cover them all here , but would like to raise some for your consideration : 1) The bias that modern people, equipped with their common sense and scientific knowledge, think and understand better and deeper about things happen in their bodies and this universe maynot be so true as you think . The Taoist texts repeatedly say that the more cilivzed we are , the more we become distant from Tao. Why " Nourish a Mind by paying attention to nowhere" sounds so difficult to us ? Is it too abstract ? Or, because our minds and senses are too entangled by things so modern, so scientific? 2) The study of "Being" and its varied expressions in this world is the strength of the Western mind, but how about qi and " emptiness" , those things so alienated to the Western favor ? It seems, rathan than observing, disassembling , controlling things, the strength of the Chinese and Indian mind is in studying things void of any forms, levels and characteristics ... 3) Taoist alchemy repeatedly affirms that the everlasting life ( both physical and spiritual) is possible ,and , people who have a deep understanding of the jing-qi-shen theory unlikely doubt its truth. Yet if we follow the prevailing way of reasoning (cooling the body under very low temperature, manipulating DNA..etc.), hardly can we make any real breakthrough in this realm . To me as a Taoist, how stupid and superficial it is of this approach can be found in movie like " Forever Young" ; maybe what happens in the movie " Cocoon" is closer to the Taoist idea. 4)Taoism views human body as some kind of small cosmos which reflects and corresponds to a much bigger cosmos outside; there is a big Taiji outside, similarly in every human body , there is a 'smaller' taiji . ( In Buddhism, a similar idea is found : The relation between the Moon that shines in the sky and those millions of " moons " in lakes, pools, springs...on ground ) And, breeding a "golden dan" (金丹) in our body is just a repeated , local process of creating a micro-cosmos in us ,which , is clearly a traditional view of Taoism originated from thousand years ago ( see Taoist writings: "丹經極論 ", " 唱道真言"..)So, don't belittle it as any sports , exercise or practice...it is an enterprise trying to solve the secret of us and the universe. _

Being situated in the post-heavenly status makes our mind incapble of understanding what Englightenment is. However, some Taoist masters did try to make it a little easier for us to grasp the way . The following is what the Ming Dynasty Taoist master , Lù Xī Xīng (陸西星), who is also the creator of the so-called East School , tries to summarize for us what the process* may look like: 1) Purifying our mind(澄神): Because our yin-typed of mind (ie, post-heavenly mind) is full of unclean stuff, hardly can we rely on it to reach Enlightenment. That means, all those status we know about our mind : dreaming, intuition, reasoning , precetption..all can't be made use of for attaining Enlightenment ; conversely , they are things we have to get rid of . So not only what are in our mind : color, emotions, images, drive, feelings..but also the containers /forms ,whatever they are, that accomodate them are liable to be eliminated. ( That means, even Kant's a priori categories have to got rid off...) 2) Nourishing our mind( 養神): Different from the Buddhist way, the Taoist does not think that soley by relying on the Purification, a great Mind will then arise from that status of pure mindlessness. In fact, the purified mind needs to be further nourished by jing and qi. Without them, even if we have achieved something great , we can't keep it long. 3) Condensing(凝神) our mind : Originally the emergence of our post-heavenly mind is due to the split of jing , qi, shen of us , so in order to attain their unity , jing and qi have to be consolidated into Shen again . Having a pure mind nourished long enough by jing and qi , a condensed Mind will arise . And, it is after having a Mind securely condensed , a new gateway will open...and Enlightenment is close to us... * Based on Lu's book " Some chats on the mystery"《玄膚論》; I have added some salt in it..

Thanks .

Thanks. Jing, in its materialized form, always goes downwards, hardly can we reverse it , direct it upwards to our head ; it is after having it changed to the form of qi, can we lead it upwards and circulate it around our body .( By the way , qi , with jing assimilated inside, that comes to our head and face , is a definitely a high-quality dose of nutrition for persistent youth and beauty :-) ) Unfortunately , qi that circulates in our body is stuff that can't give us forever youth because it is a limited lump sum, localized in our body, limited by it ; so, from the point of view of pre-heavenly qi, existing qi is still something post- heavenly.

Both Taoism and Buddhism emphasize Awakening , a spiritual state popping up from mindlessness or Wuwei : To the utmost of yin ( nothingness and non-doing ),Yang arise from the deep bottom ... Although our daily consciousness is always viewed by people as a state of awaken or sane , when compared to Taoist Awakening , it is just a state of unclear drowsiness or half sleeping ; Taoist Awakening is something of much more condensed, much more crystal , and likely comes to us abruptly , similar to our awakening from dreaming . It is condensed , so that no fluctuation of minds allowed; it is crystal , so that no impure stuff exists . In fact , before the Taoist meta-Mind "元神" ( or Buddha Heart, as what is called in Buddhism) comes upon us , there was a series of such Awakenings that people should have been experiencing ... And, hardly can you talk about Taoist meta-Mind or Buddhist Enlightenment before having experienced them, skilfully playing with them.

People think that Taosit qigong is to teach people how to polish qi, which is unlikely to be true ; Taoist qigong, to the final anaylsis, is to tell people how to polish a Mind because what kind of qi we get is porportional to what kind of a mind we can attain . Before we can get this great Mind , we have to get rid of those social interferences /limitations on us ; simply speaking , see how many criticisms we can bear, how many mockings we can ignore , how much loneliness we can sustain ... etc. These are basic requirements , if even such minor barriers you can't pass , then please stop any talking of qigong for what is following are much dangerous and severe stuff... Then , we have to disentangle ourselves from the prevailing ideology; in the modern society, it is mainly the dominant scientism ; you definitely can't depend on such a scientific mind,which follows strict logical reasoning and instrumental intelligence to achieve it ; What we make use of is the meta-Mind(元神) . A scientific mind, even equipped with tons of psychological / neuro-anatomical knowledge and means , can't understand the meta-Mind or qi ; The world of qi can only be opened by a metal-Mind for they are the same nature , on the same ,high level of spiritual plane ; As a taoist saying tells us : " It is because they are the same nature that makes the gong possible ".(" 同類易施功 ") For example, although baboon look likes humans, hardly can you start from the mind of it to study human's mind, they are just different in nature and distinct on distant planes of spirit.

Hi, LBDaoist , I think you are quite right here, the issue is the relation between qi and our spirit. Although qi is not our ultimate target , at initial and middle stage, it does provide great help. Just look at all other practices ,spiritual or religious they are or not , and see without the help of qi, what they appear to us : 1) Physical exercises or sports: without having qi initialized ,what the best they can give us is just a life span of 80~100 years ; such a short period of time , in fact, doesn't match how smart and noble a spirit we get. Strangely , in the western cultural heritage, people ,even the brightest guys, think that it is natural and a scientific fact...and, few who not succumbing to their god of scientism , are accused of being unnatural ... 2) Yoga : Unable to understand the role of qi playing in our bodies, it inevitably degenerates into some kind of bodily formalism . 3) Most religions and spiritual philosophies :Incapable of introducing qi into their systems means they are unable to prevent themselves from falling into the trap of mysticism or Creationism .For example , a praying or a singing of curses that can't arouse qi, in fact, leads you to nowhere ,but mysticism or groundless expectation of miracle ; On the other hand,capable of arousing qi enables you to have a framework of reference to check the effectiveness of your spiritual practices and tune them by looking into what quality of qi you get ... Of course, you should repeatedly remind yourself that such a framework should not be turned into a set of shackles , some kind of attachment. 4) For those schools of Buddhism who accuse Taoism of attaching to something physical or an eternal life : Without qi, I wonder how they can rescue their followers from being repeatedly entangled by the " pseudo- Void " ,the most common "sickness" that most intellectuals doomed to get when they follow the Buddhist path... The wisdom of Taoism is that it clearly understands the dialectical ( in Chinese term , the yin-yang relation) , interactive relation between our spirit and qi : First, we use our spirit to initialize qi , then conversely we use that qi to nourish and upgrade our spirit; with this much higher quality of spirit we further refine our qi.... up to a critical point at which we get an abrupt , clear Mind , pop-up from the very deep bottom of us, always accompanied with a "bang" or thundering ...( Shao Yong said : "地逢雷處見天根" ) then all our doubts about life , death, soul, eternity and mysticism start to dissolve..

It is quite clear that we can't polish qi by relying on this daily-life ego, which is unlikely be a real one despite the fact that it is mistakenly identified by most people as real . Both Taoism and Buddhism clearly point this out . The difference is that Taoism not just tells us this fact , but further points out where the real one goes, what location and direction the real Ego/Mind is hidden after having ousted ; the emphasize on the relation between Kan and Li , in fact, is to implicitly tell us about those points. Calling the real one back , therefore , is the the main task of Taoist qigong.

Don't grasp what you mean here, sorry ... ;

Not understand what you really mean here .General speaking, male starts from the lower dantian and accomplish immortality at their upper dantian; female starts from the middle dantian and accomplish immortality also at the upper dantian; You accumulate qi to a certain amount and quality, then an unprecedentedly experienced clear Mind will arise from it and you will become brilliant ...

The best concepts to describe the arise and proceeding of the Microcosmic circulation is still the "formula" of jing , qi and shen, any attempt to re-interprete it in western physical or chemical terms is doomed to be a failure; Such an attempt is just to limit something great in your deliberately invented framework, which also bars your achieving something higher in your practice because by using it to understand and interpret what happened in your practice, such a thought already entangles, pulls you back ; it does no help to make you understand more and march forward.. It is some kind of " cultural " karma/devil("魔") that many people in the West not sense it ... Just point out one critical thing : Without having nourished a Mind out of mindlessness, and let it take charge of the whole process, you can't have any real Microcosmic circulation; there is always a spiritual intervention, and it is critical . On the other hand, in Western science, whatever things and status we define : energy, heat, gravity, momentum, free fall... all are objective existence independent of our intervention; even in the theory of Relativity , any participants or observers of the experiment, their mind does not intervene, let alone being the critical element in the process... What physical or chemical law tells you that from absolute emptiness a MIND , so different from our daily trivial emotions, reasoning ( no matter how logical and delicate it is ) and intuition, can pop up , and is nearly omnipotent ?

I accessed "Taobums" many times from China, it was okay ( 2-3 months ago); Regarding Facebook, of course, you always can't .

I doubt the saying of " no return "; in fact, unless you already refined all your jing into qi and lock it there safely , there is always path of returning, or more precisely speaking , path of degenerating. It is always difficult to rise to heaven and become gods, it is always easy to fall back to ground or even to hell...

Happy Moon Festival

The practice of having some software, applications or web services done in a way of open source is one of the great accomplishments we human beings achieved in recent decades. Things such as Linux, PHP, Arduino..do not appear as what they are or will never exist without it . Should Taoist alchemy also go open source so that by collective effort, human beings' ability of manipulating qi can be enhanced, or even multiplied , within a short period of time? My answer to this question, unfortunately , is "No". Just like you can't find on internet any detailed explanation of how to make a nuclear bomb( I mean those concrete steps of refuning Plutonium , for example, not just those basic principles) no matter how hard you google, wiki..for the information of it , you can't get the concrete alchemical steps that help you refining your ordinary qi ( ie, qi flow in our body's channels) into pre-heavenly qi so that you can break the gateway , enter an arena of eternal life...,no matter how hard you baidu it. I mean, our civilization is just not mature enough for such a practice at this stage.