exorcist_1699

It seems there are 3 forms of intelligence: 1) scientific Knowledge , experience ,common sense .. those stuff that the crowd know . 2) The realization /materialization of group 1) outside human brain : database, web server, AI , expert system.. 3) Intelligence after attaining certain level of Enlightenment . People who only understand groups 1) and 2) , no matter how hard they try , can't understand the significance and character of group 3) ; On the contrary , people who come out from group 3) can easily grasp the characteristics and content of group 1) & 2) .

Although attaining certain level of enlightenment is troublesome,even boring , its achievement is proportional to what quality of qi you can get , so the job is inescapable . Taoist masters always describe it as a job of drilling into the nothingness/ emptiness ;It sound likes emptiness having many layers or endless layers, similar to your exploring into an atom, the deeper you enter , the closer you approach the nuclei, the harder effort you have to make yet the greater power or immense power you will get . Or, it is like a mind stripping off its own shackles: first the social and cultural , then the physical body's , then categories of time , space, cause and effect ...( the Zen Buddhist way )

If that enlightened MIND is all nothing , why saying: " Nourish a HEART/ MIND from nowhere " (" Diamond Sutra")("金剛經") If that MIND is so trivial as somebody says here , why saying that it is a total solution to all human sufferings including illness and death ( " Heart Sutra")("般若心經")

Buddhist enlightenment , at its highest stage, should be a MIND ( not a ghost ) capable of leaving and returning to our physical body freely . Its difference with the Taoist one is that IT finally leaves this physical body on earth , thinking that it is valueless while Taoist ,with the ability of qi-lizing the physical body , may choose to bring it along . Taoism also thinks that the accomplishment of such a MIND, its several big leaps from a daily life ,trivial mind , should be interpreted in the jing-qi-shen framework and yin/yang theory , not just a mind abruptly capable of stripping off its own shackles, step by step to becoming a greater MIND.

Regarding the dangers in cultivation , one always happens is that your mind is too absorbed ,too deep in mindlessness (samādhi ) that you yourself can't come out of it after weeks even when external dangers arise : a bear comes close , landslide ...etc. If there is no partner , it may be dangerous . You may need your partner to hit a drum beside your ears to call you back .Or, by self-help : The taoist method of self-help is by clasping your finger on certain segment of your other hand's finger so that when qi circulate to that point , you are automatically waked up at the scheduled time. Such kind of thing , in fact, if not being told , people can hardly know .This is the reason why a good teacher is needed . This is the reason why in-depth knowledge of TCM is needed. Like many TCM and acupuncture doctors , we should know the time-table of qi circulating in our body well .

The success of Taoist cultivation is said to be dependent on 4 factors: 1)Whether you know the method and ways well (法) : for example, whether you know the stop of releasing jing will come earlier or later than stop of ordinary breathing ;what phenomena will arise when pre-heavenly qi come to you...etc. 2) Fortune or wealth (財) : There are two explanations: a) It refers to whether you have enough money to support a living of 3-4 years jobless but concentrating on Taoist cultivation . b)Another explanation seems to refer to how old/how much jing you get when coming across the Tao. Old guys with little jing and spiritual power will find them difficult to believe and culminate energy to have some big leaps forwards . 3) Partner (侶) : It is divided into internal and external partners. External partners are Taoist friends who safeguard each other during this period of cultivation. 4)Place(地) : This is the topic , together with partners, we talk here. Factor 1) is said to be the most important, then follows factor 2)... You can also find that these factors are related to personal karma. For example, I am entangled by an old member of my family that within 2- 3 years of time , I can't retreat and leave the city (Hong Kong) although I know most of the steps...

I think such group should be : 1) limited to 3- 4 persons; too big a group is difficult to keep itself , and alsol draw unnecesaary attention . 2) Their level of Taoist theory and practices are nearly the same , ie they know the steps and its potential dangers.They have common goal to accomplish within a time span , not a hippie life . 3) Most of them have settled their earthly affairs / responsibility . 4) There is a fixed year plan to succeed the goal , if not , dissolved . No group can gather forever .

Regarding the necessity of a teacher , quite strangely the traditional saying is : 性由自悟, 命假師傳 That is , regarding the spiritual aspect of cultivation , likely you can grasp it by self-understanding or self-perception if you are smart enough . It is the physical aspect , which involves everlasting life issue , that can never be caught by imagination , no matter how smart you are , and must be told ( by a teacher or other sources ; since seldom are such critical hints left in black and white , so likely you have to rely on a teacher ). This is also the reason why many talented Zen monks , after having completed their steps of nourishing " a MIND from nowhere ", still have to live with their teachers for years . In fact, things related to spiritual aspects of our cultivation can be talked about publicly , things related to physical life /eternity can't be talked publicly .

To : Dao Zhen (O Take the Yang from Kan and the Yin from Li.......) You just release what I am hesitant to speak ... You are really kind to your western fellows...

Our post-heavenly status is a status where fire/ spirit and water/jing separated , which makes us forever incapable of detaining jing as we want . Our spirit ,on top of our body , dispersed and lost in daily life reasoning , entertainment and all other seductions in this modern world ; Our jing , at the bottom of our body, lost in daily sex activities and nocturnal release . The solution is to make them come together . A famous Taoist saying is " When fire and water intermixed and have a intercourse , you never get old" (水火交,永不老)

Besides knowing the jing-qi-shen framework ,the yin/yang theory and I Ching are also important . Two trigrams : Li ( symbolize fire /spirit, where yin embedded in yang) and Kan (water/jing, where yang embedded in yin) : ____ __ __ _____ (Li) and __ __ _____ __ __ (Kan) provide some of the missing blocks . The post-heavenly status of humans is symbolized by a hexagram in which Li trigram on top , Kan at bottom . So, we are half yin , half yang ; Returning / reversing to the pre-heavenly status means trying to become 100% pure yang ( initiate the so-called small cosmic circulation) .

No matter how computer virus appears , or how quickly they appear everyday and spread across the internet , we know that in the final analysis , their executable codes on different platforms , are composed of 0 and 1 or different series of 0 and 1 only . No matter how small and strange life/virus they are , they are composed of qi in yin /yang forms ; Taoist qigong , by grasping the fundamental element of life , does have UNIVERSAL safeguarding /curing power ,especially when you can reach its deeper / more basic level ( pe-heavenly level ). This is the reason why disease-free is possible .

At first look ,retaining jing seems simple , but it is in fact a very troublesome issue. It is careless to refute its importance arbitrarily . We know that very old guys do not produce jing ; it is also said that guys who are situated in extreme situation ( e.g , Jews detained in Nazi's camp ) did stop releasing jing for a long time . But under normal situation , you can't stop releasing it once or twice a month. In fact, what makes we live and reproduce also makes we die . This is the yin/yang structure ( or dialectic ) of life . Death's seed is hidden when we were born . On the other hand, life , or the possibility of everlasting life ,is also hidden in death . Of course, there are some missing , crucial blocks of this puzzle untold , or can't be told . But the general principles are already mentioned by some people on this forum .

" Semen retention makes you immortal, that is ridiculous." Why not try retaining it for 4~5 months ( I am not asking a very long time ) before making such criticism.

To: dragonfire: 1) I mean even celibate or ascetic way of life not ensure your stopping release of jing , but if people can achieve it for a period of 4-5 months , then I think they find most of the arguments here meaningless ... 2) On the other hand, it is said that ,even married life sometime can make people accumulate enough jing for high level achievement as long as what you accumulate is more that what you release. 3) Sun SI MIU is generally believed to be an immortal by Taoists. The actual historical record is he aged over 100 years old and then disappeared ..

It seems only Taoism raises the issue of physical immortality in this world and has concrete steps to implement it ,ie , the way of jing-qi-shen , which also puts it under practical tests. To other religions/ philosophies, you die or become a martyr ,then you become immortal in heaven forever, no need to pass any proof ...Nor do they bother to raise any... But does it imply that it is just a technical issue in Taoism? in fact not; it is more a moral issue or both . Unable to solve the moral issues of it definitely will undermine your technical achievement .

Why deleting the post? Immortality is always a crucial and interesting topic Besides, who really knows the secret of it ?

Neither celibate nor ascetic way of life can give you immortality , if they are , then we will have quite a lot of immortals in this world . It is said that only after your having completed the process of transforming jing ( sperm ) into qi , do you begin to live forever ... But to make it safer , you better transform your qi further into shen ( Spirit) ... Because in that case you start to share the privileges of being gods/God, and grasp the utmost secret of life in the cosmos ,who dares to talk about it plainly on the internet ?

decades ago... The initial achievement of our Taoist practice , a step forwards from philosophical Taoism to Taoism of praxis , is to get rid of a cold we got , and then gradually towards getting no cold /disease at all . Illness-free is, of course, quite an achievement ; it is also a step towards bigger freedom . In stead of being entangled in those philosophical chats on freedom , why not achieving something really practical ? The second step is to stop the proceeding of our built-in biological clock , that is , aging . In physics, it is only when we travel at a speed close to light does our biological clock start to slow down ; in Taoism , it is only after our having entered the arena of pre-heavenly , does the clock of our existence start to stop , even reversed

In Hong Kong , a Taoist immortal named Wong Tai Sin ( Cantonese pronunciation) is the dominant one that at least 50% of its seven-million residents will go to visit his temple and do some sort of worship . Its temple is also a famous tourist spot .

Yeah, in fact our physical body is some sort of blockade barring us towards Tao, but I get rid of them just by forgetting them, not by chopping off them the method is : " Forgetting your body so as nourish qi "

I enjoy reading Dao Zhen's stories ; but what is just the media, what is the true source is also told .

Thinking that qi comes from our abdomen or other places in our body definitely is a mistake ; In that case, it can't have the healing power against so many diseases that many people experienced ; The qi arises form our dantian is just a small part of it , like a iceberg above water we see ...

" Emptiness " is where the qi comes from , so of course , it benefits health

Such saying is again inappropriate . Does it imply that rich guys can do evils but with lot of money , they can cancel their karma, and repeatedly commit the crimes ? I am afraid that relying on drawing those symbols, no matter how powerful they are , people are still entangled by something , attaching to something , and are still lost the arena of five phases and bagua... far from the pre-heavenly Tao. In fact, you can not reach Tao by relying on whatever symbols, sounds, lights... Maybe you will say: " I just advocate FU to prevent or eliminate accidents or disasters..." But, why advocating the trivial ?