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Everything posted by exorcist_1699
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It is reported that recently a 28 meter height ,60 tons weight , gold-plated statue of Laotze is built in Henan province of China in celebration of the 2,582th birth day of the great thinker .The cost of building this status is around 2 million USD dollars. 33 kg of gold is said to be used .
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28 meter height, gold -plated Laotze Statue
exorcist_1699 replied to exorcist_1699's topic in General Discussion
The statue is now put at LingBao, a place of an old fortress where Laotze was detained by a government officer to write his Tao Te Jing down 2,500 years ago before his leave of China towards the west.. Criticisms say that by doing so only the local tourist industry will benefit, not the spirit of Laotze. -
I do agree that the mindset of most practicing Buddhists are far from the ideal . However, the unique way of Zen does tell us that hiding in between the changing of our minds ,for example : 1) After the end of the precedent idea but before the rise of a future idea. or between : 2) Neither X nor non-X idea there can be another world that most reasonable men ignore...
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Compared to other religions, Buddhist way of getting rid of idol worship is unique and from the ground up because it knows that humans are inclined to create an idol ,in whatever form, they always desperately need. So, in reading the Diamond Sutre, we understand that not only an idol made of clay is nothing related to Buddha, any color, sound ,idea or symbol is in fact an obstacle barring us from becoming the Buddha. Also , by reading a classics like the "Diamond Sutra" , we are impressed by how well the Zen Buddhism inherits the magnificience of the Mahayana Buddhism;Zen is really nothing "carzy" as some people think...
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Compared to other religions, Buddhist way of getting rid of idol worship is unique and from the ground up because it knows that humans are inclined to create an idol ,in whatever form, they always desperately need. So, in reading the Diamond Sutre, we understand that not only an idol made of clay is nothing related to Buddha, any color, sound ,idea or symbol is in fact an obstacle barring us from becoming the Buddha. Also , by reading a classics like the "Diamond Sutra" , we are impressed by how well the Zen Buddhism inherits the magnificience of the Mahayana Buddhism;Zen is really nothing "carzy" as some people think...
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Many religions condemn other gods that are not worshiped by them as idols, which is not anything new to us ,however, Zen Buddhist way of fighting against an external , people-made ,wooden or metal idol , is unique. Please don't think that other Buddhist schools will do the same , otherwise you will be blamed for enforcing something blasphemy on others , which they are unwilling to commit . Since the basic principle of Zen Buddhism is that all people is capable of becoming a Buddha , are having a Buddha Heart inside themselves , but not discovered, of course, the one they come across on the road outside there is unlikely be any real one, which, of course, can be killed or smashed. Most Zen's ways of attaining enlightenment are simple, straight and look extreme to people , however, it is their way of making some spiritual breakthrough (into another world ) which ,is totally unreadable to people who haven't experienced it ....Just as we can't imagine how a maths genius can figure out the result of a 20-digit number multiplied by another 20-digit number in a second , Zen's condensed way of using a mindless intuition to such an extent/ altitude is really a masterpiece of human intelligence.
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I used to post some ideas here talking about something big and hollow, for example,advise people to muddle with emptiness, which make me look like some kind of fool; so, this time , I would like to talk about something small but real : mosquitoes . Capable of living in the wilderness alone can be somehow important because there can be a time we are forced to escape from political turbulences , wars or economic depression ,which make living in a big city not possible, and go into forest or mountain ; however, most of us just can't deal with it when such a challenge comes. Instead of thinking of coming across a bear or puma on mountain, the first threat I think of is the attacks from mosquitoes .The persistent mosquitoes makes our living in the wilderness for a relatively longer time something unbearable . In fact, ordinary people's wei-qi ( protective qi ) , an invisible shield-like energy on our body, is too weak to keep off mosquitoes . Although our head is a place mosquitoes unlikely to attack due to its concentration of qi and blood , our forelimbs , an area more distant from our dantian, are likely attacked for their weaker flow of qi. Based on personal experiences, I find Taoist qigong capable of driving off the mosquitoes due to its capacity to strengthen our body's qi on a whole,maybe the extra heat emitting... .And, likely qi also can drive off other insects. Of course, if it can drive off insects , it means other living organisms , say bacteria or virus , can also be got rid of. Able qi-gong practioners are , in fact,free of skin diseases and insect bites. Any similar experiences ?
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Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
Generally speaking,the higher the way it is , the less it has to touch upon things like levels or locations ( say the three dantians) , or functions / physical entities( the 5 organs) . The highest way , of course,is to start from " no where ", without touching anything ,even the " nothingness/ emptiness"; Some readers likely immediately think of the similar Zen's way, which is something as difficult as what we have mentioned . The result of adopting this way, based on the unpleasant experience that the Chinese experienced in the Zen Buddhism history , is that most of the practitioners are either trapped in the so-called Lunatic Zen "disease"(狂禪)(guys who boasted of their understanding of Enlightenment, Awakening , addicted to philosophical arguments with others , yet in fact are lack of any actual experience in Englightenment ..etc).. or degenerate into Verbal Zen (口頭禪) ( people who relate those daily life matters to and carelessly interpret them in Zen's terms , turning the indepth things into trivials ; which is ,in fact, a vulgarization of something great) . In a word, although not starting from dantian/ postures sound good , most likely,on most people, it doesn't get good results . So, most sifu, nowadays, still talk about things like lower dantian , upper dantian, the five-elements stuff...etc, which do reflect the being-entangled-in- the-post-heavenly-qi status that most people are situated when they start their practice. Of course, there will be one day , after decades of searching, a sifu does comes across a gifted disciple, then he may exceptionally preach a way of starting from nowhere... The more excellent a sifu/master is, the lonelier he is in this world , as Liu Yi Ming's writes in a poem : 看破浮生一也无,单身只影走江湖。 鸢飞鱼跃藏真趣,绿水青山是道图。 大梦场中常觉我,千峰顶上视迷徒。 Having seen through in life nothing real I lonely travelled across lakes and rivers Truth hides in , flying eagles and swimming fish Green water and mountain , where Tao hovers In a big dream , I always find myself alone awakening Like overlooking from top of mountains, I view the people down there, lost -
Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
I do not know the "book of Balance and Harmony" if you are talking about a Taoist book ; likely there is some problem on the translation of the book 's title for I am quite familiar with most of the major Taoist writings. The western translators sometimes give a title to a book hardly can we imagine.. "Understanding Reality"? If you are talking about the one written by Zhang Bo Tuan, then of course it is a very important book. The book is composed of poems, and uses too many jargons and implicit metaphors; without someone's explanation, it is totally unreadable even to those Chinese readers who are good at Classical Chinese. While Zhang is the master who established the South school, Liu Yi Ming belongs to the Long Men legacy. Liu Yi MIng, unmarried he is , is unlikely to advocate any kind of Dual Cultivation by using the body of the opposite sex. "take the yang from water trigram (kidneys) to fill the middle of the fire (heart) trigram." is , of course,a way crucial for Taoist Alchemy . It is Taoist unique, intelligent way of solving the problem of achieving Enlightenment ( in Taoist term: Shen ). -
Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
Unfortunately to translate the whole content of the mentioned book is beyond my ability at this moment ,maybe one day in future I can.. -
Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
As I am repeatedly asked by some readers /members here about my role on this forum , my answer is as before that I am just playing a role of a translator, translating some inaccessible Taoist materials from Chinese to English. If you find some of my ideas great, it is the original people who spoke them that are great, not me. Anyway, you can keep sending me messages here, in public or private way; and, if I am capable , I will try answering them. -
Not all meditations can arouse qi and the jing embedded in it , or care about arousing them. For example, likely the Buddhist or make-you-release types of meditation are indifferent to them .And, a meditation incapable of initializing qi and jing means it can't cure . The steps or layers of Taoist curing should be in the following sequence, from easy to difficult: -Hair -Skin -Muscle -Bone -Marrow That means, changing our white hair to black is relatively easy, making our fallen teeth reborn is very difficult. If we can change things happen in our marrow, then most of sufferings and diseases can be removed.
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Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
Reply to Fatguyslim: In order to find and read all Liu Yi Ming 's works , you can go to a famous Chinese Taoist website : www. Xiulian.com then try to find and click 内丹典籍, then click 道书十二种 ; all his writings are there; Unfortunately they are all in Chinese. -
Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
Although quite difficult , I try to give literal translations for those possible: 2)The immortal person on Kun side; 3)The Golden Old man; 4) To live and to kill; Making use of the chance secretly; 5)The superb virtue; the inferior virtue; Any of the above jargons is a big topic, so I only choose the second one,"the Immortal Person on Kun side " to explain, in Liu's own words in the book "Arguments on cultivating the truth ": ( My translation) A disciple asked: " Pre-heavenly qi is formless and invisible , once we lost it, how can we re-capture it ?" The sifu answered: " All the secrets of Taoist alchemy lies here. So secret it is to be safeguarded that , inversely it makes the Taoist legacy nearly lost . Isn't it true that when you lose an object, you go back to the place it is lost to find ? The loss of the pre-heavenly qi is due to the rise of Yin, so you go back to the pace where Yin arises to find it ; In fact, it is already there ; it is unnecssary to go other places to find it. As the I-Ching says: ' No need to go far away to search for it , it is already inside of you , yet dependent on how well you polish your own virtue.' Anyway, in order to grasp the pre-heavenly qi, the key lies in our capability of meeting the right Person; without this Person, hardly can our pre-heavenly qi return. As a Taoist master said: ' Taoist medicine of immortality comes from the South West, which is called the location Kun . In order to locate it , we have to rely on the right Person . So clearly I have told you this, you should memorize it; what I am afraid is that even when you come across Him in future , you don't recognse Him.' In fact, without the keys provided by their sifu, hardly can people recognice that Person. " (Translation ends) -
Liu I-Ming 18th century Taoist Adept
exorcist_1699 replied to fatguyslim's topic in Daoist Discussion
Liu Yi Ming's(劉一明) best book , also his most famous one , in fact, is called "Arguments on cutlivating the truth " (修真辯難) . The book is also one of the few best Taoist writings ever written in the Ching Dynasty . Maybe only 2 or 3 other writings in the same legacy can claim equal to or better than it . For examples: the famous " Chanting the truth of Tao"("唱道真言" ); Significance of the "Argument" is that through a conversation between a sifu and his disciples, happened one night in the late 18th century on a high mountain in the Gansu Province , Liu explained to us nearly all Taoist jargons in an explicit and precise way that never had other Taoists writers done before; Liu , as a master who is familiar with Buddhism , Confucian ,Taoism and I Ching ,and gets very great achievement in Taoist alchemy, of course can illuminates those concepts in a much indepth way that hardly others can match. Here, I just raise few of the important and repeatedly mentioned ones : 1) 玉液還丹 2) 坤方不死人 3) 金公 4) 生殺盗機 5) 上德下德 These concepts, keys they are , unfortunately only known to very few of the Western readers . When we compare the book to his contemporaries' , say the Wu-Liu(伍柳) School's writings, , Liu 's(劉) looks superior in the senses that its explanations of Taoist alchemy are clearer , more coherent and systematic . By saying so , it does't necessarily mean Liu Yi Ming's gong is higher than Liu Huan Yang's(柳華陽) ( both are unmarried for whole life,but Liu Hua Yang becomes a monk when he was just a boy..) -
Our life is like a set of oil lamp: Jing as the oil to keep the fire burning; qi as the fire and, more importantly, shen as the light emitting ,going far away.. . How far the light can go , can give us direction and wisdom? There is no limitation, it depends on what kind, how pure the oil you get.
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Oil lamp: a metaphor of jing ,qi and shen
exorcist_1699 replied to exorcist_1699's topic in General Discussion
Yeah, I did. The most unbelievable part of Taoist practice is its claim of those spirit-related, supernatural powers. People wonder why only by eating ordinary stuff : meat, fruits..and breathing in air ( oxygen, carbon dioxide..), can we get powers beyond the nature. By raising this metaphor, I want to let readers think more about why by refining the basic force of life ( jing) , some invisible , intelligent thing can happen.. I have to say , ordinary people's spirit is dispersing like ordinary light, powerless; Taoist refined spirit is coherent as a laser beam ; that is why it can foretell things not yet happened, why it can change things' structure as laser cutting through extreme hard steel... -
Taoist Internal Alchemy Cultivation Diagram Explanation
exorcist_1699 replied to The Way Is Virtue's topic in General Discussion
It looks interesting..but a little long. I am drowsy at this moment, hope can give some comments tomorrow.. -
In order to fight off mosquitoes, what we need is just the strengthening of our wei-qi , so there is no need to attain too high a qi-gong level; I think , it likely be somewhere before our success in doing the micro-cosmic circulation . There will be some phenomena appearing which tell you that your wei-qi is becoming quite strong : 1) Despite the upheavals of the weather, temperature changes rapidly in a short period of time, you still do not catch a cold easily. Even you get it, one or two sneeze ( it is qi's driving off the cold ) can make you back to normal . 2) Even at some vulnerable places of your body : toes, inner side of your thigh.. you hardly get any skin diseases . Even if you get them, after your paying attention to those places, by introducing some qi to there,for example, the symptoms disappear quickly in few hours. 3) When you unintentionally move your hands or body around, you sense an invisible shield wrapped around you, somewhat similar to your walking in the water, but a little softer than that feeling of resistance.. With some of the above phenomena, likely mosquitoes start to stay away from you... Of course, other people may get their own experiences, which I would like to hear.
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In fact, I view aging ,like ringworm or tinea, as some kind of disease, not necessarily be anything fatal ; Of course, aging is the result of the deterioration of the health of our organs, those symptoms : wrinkles, black dots... that appearing on skin, are only the expressions of it . However, from Taoist viewpoint ,it is only the weakening of our qi and jing that makes such a status arise; and, just like the weakened wei-qi (the protective shield )makes the bacteria stay in the intervals of our toes possible, conversely our capability of retaining jing and qi will enable us to stop and reverse the process of aging . The idea that some mechanism/substance in our gene , at some poin of our life ,abruptly starts a process of aging ,pointing to a direction that dooms us, ie , death , is an idea sounds strange to Taoism .
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Hi, Suninmyeyes, 1) Not all meditations can initialize qi, or care about initializing qi; however,if some of them do, then it definitely will strengthen that invisible shield , which is always there safeguarding us, and make use of it to fight off insects and diseases ; the point is , without Taoist qi-gong practice, the one that ordinary people possess is only strong enough to withstand a cold , for example, not strong enough to drive off mosquitoes. 2)Even if we have been bitten by some poisonous insect/snake/scorpio , by initializing qi, we still can drive the toxic out of our body before it makes damages to our organs . In that case, likely the poisonous substance will be driven to the surface and appear as some kind of red spot ,wart or ulcer on our skin,can be quite a lot full of our body ,yet by scratching or squeezing them and release a little blood, the toxic can leave us. The farther we drive these symptoms to the ends of our body , ie, arm, wrist and fingers (definitely should not be towards our head or face) ,the safer we become .Of course, I can't test all the insect/animal bites, but the curing mechanism works the same way . 3) High quality qi can free us from skin diseases, the principle involved is same as its capable of helping us fighting off wrinkles , dark spots, withered color...( ie, common aging symptoms )under our skin . Test it yourself and you find it work .
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Thanks , Zerostao.
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My favorite Taoist proverb is : " 窮神而知化 " What is yours ?
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The real meaning of "all is within" is purely contextual?
exorcist_1699 replied to Non's topic in General Discussion
Of course, there are pre-conditions for the paying-attention-to-nowhere method, that is ,you should be quite healthy ,and ,likely at the age under 45. Otherwise , instead of leading you to a spiritual saneness, it likely leads you to a state of doze,dullness , sleep... To guys over 45 ( appr.) , some kind of "attached" way (rubbing your balls ,feet's bottom ..), some kinds of visualization, Taiji..etc, so as to start , to accumulate qi and jing are still needed. The " sex - driven mind is, in fact , another face of the Buddha Heart" ("淫心即是道心"). If the sex drive in you is already dried up, your life lack of force , hardly can a Buddha Heart arise . -
The real meaning of "all is within" is purely contextual?
exorcist_1699 replied to Non's topic in General Discussion
Buddha Heart or Tao exists everywhere as void or emptiness exists everywhere , so any partial-minding of " inside" and "outside " only make you lose it . In fact, any appearance or shift of whatever minds , not just the ideas of "inside" and " ouside" , makes you away from it . So, it is useless ? People may ask . Of course not ! Tao or Buddha Heart is the omnipotent medicine for all sufferings of we humans , as all the classiscs repeatedly assure us . How can you call it useless? Any proof ? Some people insist.. ( Taoism loves people asking proofs, and it always can provide those that will be happening in the next few months, not those afterlife types ......) I can't speak for Buddhist way here but I am confident in speaking for Taoism : In an empty mind, you can nourish some high-quality qi by paying attention to nowhere ; and that qi , can be the cure for most diseases, including the so-called aging..