exorcist_1699

If there exists a medical system , the Chinese TCM, totally different from the Western one, and it claims its capability of curing not only most of human diseases , but animals', based on a theory of qi, then of course there is /will exist a " Chinese " biology different from the Western one . Fir example ,in order to cure a cow's , or an octopus's disease , which of course has a system of meridians different from the human body's, an acupuncturist has to understand how qi distributes in these creatures so as to find out which acupuncture points corresponding to curing what disease. Besides , the way qi runs in a plant or in an amoeba definitely is different from how it runs in an animal . A jellyfish lives in deep sea will "feel" qi running in its body different from us . Another area is about reproduction ; qi is said to be closely related to the rise of jing ; we know that many animals and plant's reproductive activities are related to the full moon .In TCM , we already have a complicated and detailed theory about the effect of Moon's movement on the rise and fall of jing and qi, which can be applied to explanating many animals' reproductive activities.. Even "new" features like those being studied in the Holographic biology , are already mentioned in the Huangdi Neijin (黃帝內經) ...a book written 2,000 years ago; you can find many , many examples to think about...

There is only one road towards Tao: it is the road of Yin and Yang, the road of Pre-heaven, the road capable of stopping aging at this moment and leading you towards eternity . Others are trivial . Some seems helps you healing minor diseases, some makes you have a peaceful mind, some lets you get flashing light in your eyes.... thousands of them , all are small, narrow paths leading you away from the main road yet unfortunately most people prefer to follow .

Do I adopt a sectarian attitude against other ways that similarly can lead to Taoist eternity ? Or, in spiritual area, because of its invisible and indefinite character , any emphasize of a single road is inappropriate ? In order to attain Tao, if you are not satisfied with those philosophical gossips, if you really want to have your life grasped in　your hands , then capable of arousing pre-heavenly qi is something inescapable . However, our present yin-mind ( 識神) definitely can't succeed the job , nor do other ways allow us : Viewing the moon arouse your sex drive ; visualization of anything in any forms only expands the power of your yin-mind; Asking " who am I " most likely leads you to reasoning and static-voidness ... Does Zen's self-negating , self-estrangement leads us to an enlightened mind, then help us initializing pre-heavenly qi ? Considering most of the people are drown in this too- much-sex world, it unlikely can. In fact, our post-heavenly way of breathing fills our body with yin-qi ,unsettling our mind. Different emotions (anger, fear, sorrow..) also disturb qi of our organs ,leading only to a fluctuating spirit ; without the counteraction and restraint from yang-qi from other end .. hardly can we succeed... Here lies my "dogmatic" condemnation on other ways' possibility from Taoist practical point of view...

There are two criteria of judging whether a person is a Superb Virtue ( Shang De) : 1)She/ He is still in her /his pre-heavenly status ( roughly female: before aged 13/14 ; male : before aged 16 ?) , so what is needed is just to be reminded the existence of Tao and the method . or 2) People , by some reasons, can skip some steps of the jing-qi-shen process, and directly enter the stage of cultivating the shen . That is, they can cultivate shen together with jing and qi in a stroke . Of course , these people are those who are "privileged" to adopt the Zen Buddhist method with ease yet without the defect of wrongly nourishing a yin-spirit or an illusory embryo( "幻胎" ) or falling into Pseudo-Void ( "假空"). Others are said to be people whose cultivation was half completed in their past life , so they reincarnate to finish it ; of course, some of these people do get lost in their present life and have to be reminded .

The background music is interesting but the subtitles seem problematic. In fact, in Taoist cultivation,there are 2 unwanted results we should carefully avoid: Instead of nourishing yang qi or an embryo after the intercourse of yang and yin in our body , we get : 1) An yin-embryo or ghost-styled embryo: It appears because people are ignorant of the basic Taoist concepts : the yin/yang theory ;they think that just by using their yin-spirit, through deliberately focusing it on somehing, concentration.. imagining something, using their mind moving the qi..etc they can create something significant, something great .. unfortunately it can't . Without the opening of the Magic Gateway to us ,without pre-preheavenly qi come upon us , all we have done in the end are doomed to be fruitless. As a famous Taoist saying tells us: "if you are ignorant of the yin & yang, please don't do it carelessly. "("不識陰陽莫亂為") As we make a ceramic doll , if right in the beginning/middle we find it defective , we smash the clay , and use a wholly new piece to make a new one . Never should we nourish a yin-spirit... 2) An illusory embryo: It appears most likely because people adopt a visualization approach in their practice right from the beginning, or are too eager to get some result at some stage of their practice . Visualizating how qi entering their body from outside, how a Taiji ball arising from their body, how qi flow as the books already told them...etc. and then all seems to be happening as they were told ...This is called an illusory dan (幻丹) or embryo ("幻胎"). In fact, the issue were already warned in a famous Taoist saying: " even if you find cloud gathering around your feet, it still can be illusory "(" 雲生足下仍是幻 ") Of course, if you find it illusory, you crush it and re-start from the beginning.

Better spending 5 years in studying Chinese than spending 5 years in searching for "master" in the West . In fact, 95% of the clue/ keys are recorded in books.

Some important Taoist concepts mentioned here needs further explorations: Superb Virtue (上德): born and still in a yang state , these people are said to be wealthy in the context of "method-wealth-companion-place " (法，財，侣，地） , the 4 factors necessary for accompanying physical and spiritual eternity. Simplify speaking, Superb Virtue are people not deficient in jing , so their way of climbing onto the ladder of jing-qi-shen are much easier than others . When people are still having troubles in those trivial and layers , they enter Enlightenment with a simple stroke of turning.. Poor Virtue（下德） : Most of the people are said to be Poor Virtue for they find themselves situated in a degenerated , post -heavenly state before they are lucky enough to meet Tao earlier in their adolescence. Entangled in a yin-spirit and yin-body , their ways towards pre-heavenly status are always very difficult ,if not impossible . Only relying on their consciousness , hardly can they attain the pre-heavenly status even though they know the position of dantian well , know how to focus their mind skifuly...etc. Spiritual Gong(性功） : Only by practicing the Spiritual gong, i.e. , nourishing the yin-mind, 3rd eye..visualization , people are unlikely capable of attaining Spiritual/ physical eternity . On the contrary, these spirit , even after years of spiritual cultivation, become ghost/ evil instead of gods after leaving the physical body. One of the most important arguments from the Taoist point of view against those mediocre, narrow-minded Buddhist practice . Physical Gong(命功）: In orthodox Taoist practice , Spiritual Gong must be done together with the Physical Gong, i.e., nourishing spirit with yang-jing and yang-qi ; It is only with the reverse support of yang , can our yin-spirit be fundamentally changed and upgraded . Just imagining external qi entering our body or our becoming part of the universe is unlikely to be fruitful ...

In fact, a superb programmer can write an anti-virus program by the following ways: C / C++ only or C++ plus Assembler or Assembler only or 010101100... ( it is theoretically possible ,whether you still call it software engineering is another story) Similarly , a Taoist master is a guy who can initialize the most basic force of our world : yin-qi( " 0" ) and yang- qi ("1" ) , and make use of them to eliminate all those virus.. People who can identify meanings from a series/blocks of 011010100111... of course , are never afraid of computer virus . In science , the capability of abstraction , the capability of ascending and descending freely among different levels of that hierarchy of concepts , shows us the power of how our mind grasp the reality. In Taoism, it is the intuitional capability , the ability of stripping off all characteristics of nothingness in step-by-step way or at a stroke ,tells us how powerful our mind in getting rid of those virus and diseases.

In Taoism , childlike character and naive in its positive implication , are nothing bad. In fact, in most cases, it is people 's getting too mature, their mind too full of those scientific terms and past experiences that make them succumb to the force of daily life, which , further disable them to grasp the core of Tao , to raise the immense power of nothingness (pre-heavenly qi ) .

The theory (mind ) is also the reality (qi) ,there is no special gap between them in Taoism. Once beginners of Taoism focus their mind on somewhere of their body and are capable of initializing qi, the link is established. Whether the qi they initialize is strong and delicate enough to killing some kind of virus , is dependent on the ability of their mind , not dependent on how strange, how serious that virus is .If some practitioner can't do it , it does not necessarily means qi can't do it . In fact, comparing with the immense power of our Mind, now with qi as a medium to intervene whatever problems arise in our body , all those virus , are really trivial . If talking qi's ability of killing virus/ bacteria, we have dozen of lab records from those Chinese Universities in recent decades .

The point is : what is more fundamental? The point is whether we believe qi as the most basic blocks of our world, and it can be understand , manipulated by our mind directly . If we believe it , then any virus , in whatever bad ,strange forms, in whatever scaring forms, after entering our body , can be manipulated and disintegrated by us . There is no need to rely on other means ; our mind, and the high-quality qi we initialize , are already enough to cure . Of course, if both patient and doctor are ignorant of the way of manipulating qi , and its higher form, shen, then it is another story . In Taoism, a philosophical system is also a medical system . Qi, ying ang yang are also the concepts, categories and means of curing no difference from DNA, herbs...

I know nothing about Kunlun , so I do not talk about it here . Yet I do know some Taoist practice . Definitely Taoist practice can be against any virus and let you get immunity from it . From Taoist point of view, whatever forms and characters the virus appear, they are composed of yin and yang qi , just like computer virus, whatever names/character they are, all their executable codes across different platforms are composed of 0 or 1; so to Taoists practitioners, they are never afraid of virus in any forms , in any of its newly developed forms, they are just something trivial ...Hong Kong were attacked by bird flu and SARS many times in recent years , in its utmost serious condition, you nearly can't see any people walk in streets in night , yet I was the very few who wandered at ease in streets , enjoying the special calmness that you never find in a big city... Forgive me to be candid, I wonder why people not raising something more fatal ?

Eyesight is crucial for absorbing knowledge ,yet most people 's eyesight deteriorate from their 40's. And, as their age advance, they become less and less relying on reading to absorb new knowledge and make judgment , but more and more on their previous experience . Of course it is loss to them . Just consider if an aged 80 guys who not only has 80 years' experience behind him , but still can read hundred pages of information a day as a youngster does , how powerful a mind, how good a judgment it can be. There are many trivial ,scientific ways to delay the deterioration of our eyesight ,yet the fundamental solution definitely can only come from the Taoist practice.

I am some kind of bookworm who reads hundred of books a year, yet never do I worry about any deterioration of my eyesight . The fact is: Based on the Taoist jing-qi-shen theory , reading is an activity which consumes a lot of shen and jing , and, it all relies on small amount of pre-heavenly jing plus what we absorb daily , post-heavenly from food to keep it going .However, definitely daily food can't make our eyesight always healthy and strong ; likely in their 40's ,most people get their eyesight deteriorated . It is only by Taoist practice that we can forever have a pair of sharp eyes without any worries . Sek Tai (石泰), the famous Taoist 2nd Master of the South -school , was said to be capable of passing a string through a needle's hole in his 80's because he himself always does sewing jobs. We can say that all Taoist master have a pair of clear and piercing eyes.

No matter how we emphasize, the importance of yin and yang in Taoist practice will never be exaggerated. As most people know, in Taoist theory , our existence is composed of qi (visible and materialized on a lower level as a physical body ) and spirit .While qi is said to be the yang side of us , the yin side points to the spirit of our existence , before its having reached Enlightenment . Without the concentration and skillfully applications of our spirit , qi can't be initialized; on the other hand, , without the help of qi , our spirit can't be changed and upgraded to Shen / Enlightenment. The elevation and improvement of our spiritual power in the process, without the help of qi , will unlikely be everlasting ,and , probably generating some kinds of mental troubles, even disorders. The Chinese saying : " 道高一尺, 魔高一丈 " ( Any uplift of the force of Tao is overtaken /counteracted by the further enhancement of Evil) refers to this potential danger . On the contrary,the expansion and polishing of qi , without the help of a high-quality spirit, is impossible. And, incorrect spiritual instructions , for instance, thinking that we can deliberately circulate qi on some routes we prefer , likely lead us to disasters. So, the balance of yin and yang is always crucial . Understanding of the theory enable us to anaylse troubles and act correctly in our practice ; its importance should never be underestimated .

To those who are familiar with German philosophy,when they first look at Taoism , they likely find similarities between Taoism and Hegelian philosophy: the concept wuji as Absolute Spirit, the development of yin and yang into many layers , then into all the things as the dialectic unfolding and embodiment of the Spirit in the world. However, the similarities are superficial for while Westerners use scientific means and logical reasoning to grasp the world , the Chinese follow the Tao (pre-heavenly ) => qi ( yin/yang) => five-element-... way . As there is no impassable gap between things-qi- spirit, the possibility of directly manipulating things by spirit under this " monism" of Qi is possible . Qi makes the seemingly philosophical Taoist system not just something theoretical but realistic , at least as some kind of medical dose in our body , some kind of means of healing that can really cure diseases .

Our mind and the whole body , in our present ,post-heavenly status , are yin in character . If we attach to them , say, by using our yin-mind to focus on somewhere in our body ... it is unlikely that we can nourish from it anything really yang , anything spendid and everlasting... Fortunately , hidden somewhere around us is the yang-jing("陽精") that, by digging it out , and reversely turning it upward , we can transform our yin-mind into a yang-mind ( the famous saying is : making use of yang in the trigram Kan so as to transform the yin in the trigram Li into yang ) ,and begin our way of jing-qi-shen... Of course, it is a way totally different from visualization in which people just try their best in expanding the power of their yin-mind....

Yeah, Yuan Shen and Yang Shen are different terms for the same thing. Thinking that our ying-mind, just sitting there still for hours, even days , using all sorts of methods ( visualization, viewing emptiness, moon viewing , asking silly questions such as "who am I" ?....etc ) , then without the help of jing and qi , without the help of yang , can abruptly become Enlightened , attain an omnipotent Mind solving all sufferings in our life ,seems too naive unless you are very gifted guys .... In fact, the history of the development of Zen in China already proved that it is not possible ...besides, compared with the past , we are in a much materialized world . Much more knowledge and contact with things do not necessarily make us more intelligent.

Shen at least can be split into yin and yang , post-heavenly and pre-heavenly . Even our post-heavenly consciousness can be split into dreaming, subconscious, conscious, self-consciousness , intuition... Through practice , it is possible to write an English sentence by your write hand , draw a circle by your left hand and sing a Japanese song simultaneously . As Shen's power is much powerful than our daily life consciousness and reasoning, why it is impossible to have many splits ?

The initial stage of having a mindless mind, of course can't be said to be a Yang-shen（陽神) or Yuan-shen（元神）　 . Only after having experienced a process of purifying , restructuring and awakening , does the mind become Yang-shen or Yuan-shen . When we use the term Yang-shen ,we emphasize the bright,warm and magnificent features of this big hidden Mind behind us .This mind is also qi-based , nourished by yang-qi for wherever there is yang-qi, there is life. When we use the term Yuan-shen ,we emphasize the fundamnental character of this Mind as the source of our daily-life trivial mind. Of course, just like water in a sticky , muddy pool , without a processing of purifying and condensing, never can you see water appear from it .

why viewing it from earthly eyes? It more likely considers the characteristics of our Sun ; in fact , the process is from a small dot of light, gradually changing into a round , bigger and brighter ball of light...here yang refers mainly to Sun(陽) , not to man (男) . In fact, the most widely worshiped gods/Buddha in China are female: Buddhist Kuanyin (觀音) and Taoist Marzu (媽祖)

Taoist criticisms on some of Buddhist ways are always polite and implicit. Because of such implicit criticism , the viewpoint about quietly sitting there, using all sorts of methods to cultivating our yin- mind ( moon viewing , visualization..etc) is not going to lead us to immortality of any kinds , is always missed by people ,especially the Western readers. Taoist way is the simple : jing-qi-shen ; with yang's help, it is easier for the yin-mind to complete the triple- jump from a trivial mind to becoming a Enlightened Mind / Yang-shen.

Regarding the terms : I use mind/spirit without distinguish them , anyway , whatever used , it is classified as Yin.In fact, the term yin-mind (陰識) is widely used in Taoist and Buddhist writings , and it refers to our present , daily life consciousness . When I uses Shen or shen in the framework of jing-qi-shen, I refer to a Spirit which is a product of long time cultivation , a sublimation of jing and qi ,therefore it is yang in character . The term yang-Shen(陽神) is widely used in Taoist classics. In my last post, body refers jing plus qi , not its external , physical form. Regarding the mentioned Yin Fu Jin, I take a quick look at some English translations that I can find on the internet , however, because most of those translators are good at Chinese and English yet without Taoist practice, so the literal grasp of its meanings are always not precise. Below are some of my rough translations of its famous statements : - 人知其神而神，不知不神而所以神也( " People know what their mind are , yet they are ignorant of the mindless Mind behind them." ) - 心生于物，死于物 (" It is things that make our mind, yet it is things that makes us die. " ) - 万物，人之盗。人，万物之盗..擒之，制在炁 ( " Things secretly grasp qi and jing from us , conversely humans can grasp qi and jing from things...the key is how to use qi to manipulate " )