exorcist_1699

Typical symptoms of deficiency in yang qi * , which occupies the upper part ( chest and head) of our body and its surface , are cold feet, cold hands , dizziness...etc . Wei qi ('衛氣') , the safeguarding qi that flows above our skin , comes from our lung and it makes us warm . The Heart qi , if it is strong enough , should enable the heart to pump blood to tips of our body . So weakness of them always give rise to symptoms of cold feet, cold hands , laziness to move and speak , lose of appetite .. . The conventional TCM treatment for such a deficiency in yang qi is the Four Gentlemen decoction which composes of Ginseng, Gan Cao, Bai Zhu, Fu Ling for replenishing qi of spleen, lung and heart . Hot head symptom is a little complicate to judge , I will leave it to others to comments . * From the perspective of Taoist alchemy , all qi inside of our body are yin , only the yang jing ('陽精 ') , a key to our qi cultivation and hidden somewhere in our body , is yang . So please do not mix up the TCM system with the Taoist alchemical system .

Unless people want to go further into treatment of various head diseases via acupuncture or acupressure , there is no need to do such differentiation ; for example , what acupuncture point belongs to what meridian and treat what disease ( headache , stuffy nose, dizziness ..etc ) . Starting from the eyebrow to the inside of the forehead , is the so called upper dantian people have to pay attention . A mind of differentiation is unlikely a mind for spiritual practice.

Seemingly Zen's way talks not much about emotions, sex drive , habits of life..etc , which gives people a misconception that Zen ignores them . In fact, Zen's way is an unique , thorough one to attain enlightenment that people call it 'Abrupt Enlightenment ' (' 頓悟') , which implies no steps, forms , attachments .., an one-stroke act of entering the core of what our deep spirit is . In that case , it enables a sudden , concentrated solution or treatment to most fundamental problems ( sickness, love , failure , aging, death , ..) of our life that similarly Taoist alchemy targets at , yet skipping Taoist tedious steps of accumulating jing, paying attention to what time /location that qi arises significantly , eating what nutritious food..etc ., a shortcut offered to those geniuses , al least talents , but not ordinary people .

Not only jing (essence ) can be used as fuel to burn and enhance our qi , in fact, all emotions , such as anger , jealousy, fear , anxiety.. etc can all be used as fuel to burn and grow our qi . Xing gong ( spiritual effort ) is in fact linked with Meng gong ( physical practice to increase jing and qi ) , and should not be separated from it .

The ubiquitous qi is the source of our power . Although it is difficult to sense it outside of our body , fortunately somewhere in our body , at the dantiens, we can sense and mobilize it relatively easier . Qi cures our diseases , delays aging or even reverses it , enables us to be very smart ..etc , all are the proofs of its presence . I think it is nothing wrong to grasp our own destiny in our own hands by using such power . Although to those bad guys, sickness , aging and death are things necessary to tame them , and they deserve such sufferings. To people who get a decent mind and who follow ethics , saying that it is aging , diseases or death gives meaning to their life is merciless , in fact , stupid . Maybe people who are from other cultural legacies succumb to such a saying , mainly because they do not know of any other alternative , hardly can it be true for the Daoists.

Your tongue raises to touch your palate is a natural reaction when some qi , after having reached certain quality , passes and makes you do that ; it is not any kind of deliberate action you think of beforehand how to do . Why worry about the position ? It is same as the related action that you likely also do before it : Contract the anal muscles when qi starts to rise from the bottom to your head . It is not necessary to think of how to contract your muscles beforehand ! What is called " Tao follows the Nature " ("道法自然") is when you follow what qi tells you to do , not your own presumption beforehand , nor your own expectation or imagination .

As long as practices that you are doing based on jing , qi and shen , then they can be mixed provided that you know the basic knowledge of TCM and do it naturally ( it means you follow qi's rules , not your own expectations visualization or focus ) . You can do still qigong(靜功) with active qigong( 動功) , medical qigong with alchemical dan , sitting with sleeping gong, martial arts with emptied mind stuff..etc . In addition, different TCM means , say sticking a jing- enhancing herbal plaster to your waist, drinking a herbal formula of Gancao mixed with Ginseng or pressing certain acupuncture points , can be supplements to your qigong practices because they are just different means and ways to tune , enhance qi, jing and shen. Even Buddhist cultivation , which is mainly no-Mind centered , can be mixed with Taoist practice for , from Taoist perspective , they are just those ways started from the shen's level , look seemingly capable of skipping the mechanisms of jing and qi , in fact unlikely .

The capability of our mind to learn, to memorize , to separate things into parts and find their linkages , to do deductive and inductive reasoning , and to do whatever abstractions necessary,,etc come from the meta- jing (元精) hidden in us . Notice that meta-jing originates from the pre-heavenly qi , which it is a trinity of shen, jing and qi , inseparable . Only after its embodiment in the human body , we get things and terms such as meta-shen (元神) , meta-qi (元氣) and meta-jing , telling us their respective primordial character and role played in us . The more jing , explicit form of the meta-jing , we accumulate , the smarter and good -memory we become. So the technique of retaining more jing is also the technique of attaining super memory and intelligence. However , it lies in transformation , not simply accumulation..

The reason we start from the Lower Dantian is because it is a place where people can initialize qi relatively easy . Why ? Simply due to the reason that all qi , say those running in our organs and meridians , or the qi over our skin surface , come from it . You can start from the head , or some place outside of the body , even from nowhere , but it likely be very difficult to give you some feeling of qi there . Secondly it is the likely place where the internal and external qi get linkage via the embryonic breathing . Note that our abdomen is a small place, no matter how hard we try , we cannot accumulate much there . The attention, on the contrary , should be on how to access the immense, limitless qi outside , rather than entangled by this body . So DT's significance is more a place of transition , than a place of stock .

Jing of Tranquility , another important piece of Taoism , seems never be translated into English ( If I am wrong, please tell me ) before . Written by an anonymous author around 1,700 years ago , it is also a rare , unique piece of works deliberately talks about the relation between emptiness and tranquility . Most people like to boast of how heat , light and sounds appear in their practice as proofs of their achievement, yet seldom do they raise how quiet a status they can attain ,even under very noisy environment ... 　 　　老君曰：大道無形，生育天地；大道無情，運行日月；大道無名，長養萬物。吾不知其名，強名曰道。　 夫道者，有清有濁，有動有靜。天清地濁，天動地靜；男清女濁，男動女靜。降本流末，而生萬物。清者濁之源，動者靜之基。人能常清靜，天地悉皆歸。 　　夫人神好清，而心擾之；人心好靜，而欲牽之。常能遣其欲，而心自靜；澄其心，而神自清。 自然六欲不生，三毒消滅。所以不能者，爲心未澄，欲未遣也。能遣之者，内觀其心，心無其心；外觀其形，形無其形；遠觀其物，物無其物。三者既無，唯見於空。 　　觀空亦空，空無所空。所空既無，無無亦無。無無既無，湛然常寂。寂無所寂，欲豈能生。欲既不生，即是真靜。真常應物，真常得性。常應常靜，常清靜矣！ 　　如此清靜，漸入真道。既入真道，名爲得道。雖名得道，實無所得。爲化眾生，名爲得道。能悟之者，可傳聖道。 　　老君曰：上士無爭，下士好爭。上德不德，下德執德。執着之者，不明道德。 眾生所以不得真道者，爲有妄心。既有妄心，即驚其神。既驚其神，即着萬物。既着萬物，即生貪求。既生貪求，即是煩惱。煩惱妄想，憂苦身心，便遭濁辱，流浪生死，常沉苦海，永失真道。 Translation: Laotze said: Tao is formless , it gives birth to this world; Tao is emotionless, it lets the moon and sun move; Tao is nameless, it nourishes everything everlastingly; I don't know how to call it, so I reluctantly name it Tao; Inside Tao ,something is pure and something is impure , something is active and something is passive . The heaven is pure, the earth is impure.The heaven moves, the earth stays constant .Man is pure, woman is impure. Man is active, woman is passive; going to the base, it is these elements give rise to all other things. Purity is the source of impurities. Acton is the basis for stability. If people can stick to purity and calmness , all things are available to them ;although our shen like purity, our mind pollute it; although our mind like calmness,our desires disturb it ;if we can get rid of those desires , then our mind can calm down ; if we can clean our minds, then our shen can purify itself; in that case, no emotions and desires can affect us. In fact, it is because of our incapable of getting rid of those desires and greediness that makes us impure. People who can do that, when looking inwards, will find their mind mindless , see their body shapeless , view other things in a distant formless; and if we see no mind, no body and nothing around , then emptiness is the sole thing we can find . In fact, emptiness is void , we can't empty emptiness , nor can we nullify anything in nothingness. Non-doing anything to empty emptiness or to nullify nothingness will make us sense some kind of delicate quietness ; and, through this process, we are led to the realm of absolute tranquility. To the utmost of tranquility , desires can't arise; if no desires ever arise ,then genuine tranquility is attained, which lets us live and interact with all things in a real way ; in fact, it is in this process that tranquility refines itself and leads us to our original spiritual Nature; On our way to tranquility and purity, we gradually find the right way and attain Tao; yet do we really accomplish anything? No , we accomplish nothing; it is to enlighten the mass that we claim ourselves achieve Tao. Whoever can understand this , whomever can be told of the real Tao. Laotze said : Real intelligent guys know no quarrels or contends ,it is those inferiors incline to argue and contend. Those who get superb Te know no ethics and formalities , but those who are inferior know them well and stick to them intentionally. Whoever stick to formalities and ethics, whoever know nothing about real Tao and Te. Why ? Because they get a mind of differentiating true from false, good from evils.., a false mind that is alien to Tao . Having such a false mind unsettle people's shen , and as their shen are unsettled , they become stuck to things around them ; Having entangled by things around can only provoke desires and eagerness inside. And, desires and eagerness can only mean anxieties and sufferings, which then further lead people to loss and humiliation in lives. Eventually people get death and failure to attaining Tao as the results of their lives.

Unsure what you want to express , anyway, thank you for popping up this clumsily written post that I wrote so many years ago.

Man is full of sins and imperfections, it is only by initializing and purifying our qi , can we make ourselves divine . " But, why not done by purifying our spirit as most religions ask ?" people may ask . I have to say that it is the wit of Taoism that, different from other religions , it finds the solution from the opposite side of our mind , ie, lower dantian where yang-qi arise, to counteract our trivial , evil spirit, and upgrade it rather than relying on the most-likely fruitless work in the arena of spirit . In fact, how can you rely on something itself trivial and evil, to cure itself ? In our "post-heavenly" status, after the period of adolescence, while Yang is receding , Yin is becoming the dominating " evil" force( in fact, most parents know that adolescence is a period full of dangers to their children ) , on which if we think that we can rely to change us into some kind of god or immortal, we are too naive . Conversely, it is by accumulating and purifying our qi, and through it sublimates our spirit that we can get our metamorphosis ( all the secret about the relation between the "Kan" trigram and "Li" trigram, in fact, lies here..) To the Chinese, as their Confucian heritage always talks about the righteous qi (正氣), not just in humans, but existing in the cosmos, there is no difficulty for them to understand the moral character of qi besides its medical character. Yet to the westerners, the moral character of qi is a little difficult to grasp, let alone its qualitative jump from something "energetic" to something universal and "kind "...

It is said that the following are some of the criteria to judge whether you come across a real taoist master or not : 1) He is the one who comes to you , not the one whom you think you can easily meet or identify. Of course, here I am talking about a master , if you are searching for a doctor, then it is another story. 2) A real master must know the keys to solve some crucial , troublesome issues in your practice such as " taming the white tiger" or "slashing the red dragon"; 3) A master is very likely familiar with the taoist classics in which the crucial issues are repeatedly , thoroughly argued from every different angle over centuries . 4) A master is unlikely to come for money . Having his body equipped with qi , a taoist master views money no different from any stones or sand on the roadside.

Of course .

Hi, Thanks a lot for reading my previous posts . I expect to read posts or translation you are going to contribute .

I already forget my age , so it must be very long time ago I was born...; Taoists like to compare their age with the duration of the mountains and seas exist , not figures..; anyway, glad to meet you guys/ladies here.

Hi, Hope more people can translate Taoist classics or materials into English .

It is TCM that emphasizes organs and their qi . Taoist qigong pays attention mainly to the source of all organs' qi , ie, the lower dantian, rather than the organs themselves ; so , as long as you can initialize qi , it is okay . Buddhist qigong emphasizes the mind , or no-mind , rather than the physical body ; so as long as qi is initialized , it doesn't matter where it originates from : the body , or outside of the body , or from nowhere .

There is no need to practice . No practice is the highest practice of Dao . 道何言修? 修無可修, 無修即修.

Yes, a real master should have some kind of glow in his/her eyes . The Hollywood movies about superheroes /heroines are not all imaginary .

Thank you for popping up this piece of silly post which I forget I have ever written .

I joined in 2007 ; but before that , what I understand is that this forum had been existing for many years . I really do not like the name of it .., anyway, it is one of the not so many Taoist forums overseas when you compare to the quantity of online forums of Buddhism . Taoist style is always somewhat 'arrogant ' , and to ordinary people , it is the most indifferent religion in the world. All other religions preach zealously spiritual immortality , only Taoist preach physical immortality coldly .

From Daoist perspective , the answer likely is yes . They better be full , so that we can have those qualitative jumps. However from Zen's point of view , it is not necessary as stages or steps are not its concern . Zen fully makes use of people's subjective initiative , and add some extra dimension to our spirit . Zen is beyond logic and time, this is why and how Zen can be so powerful , or so difficult . In that sense, talking about steps or stages of accumulating jing or qi is not necessary, but blockades. Daoist interpretation of Zen's uniqueness in methodology is : In terms of contra- logic, people can ignore jing and qi , go straight forward to cultivate Shen , thing on the highest level , yet at the same time finish the jobs of cultivating jing and qi , things on lower levels or earlier stages , at one stroke .. ; in terms of no time , people can go to the future achievement first , then later solve the problem at the present .. Daoist Wen Shi School ("文始派" ) is in this sense the school closet to Zen , yet still via Jing, qi and Shen ; for example , it says , right at the very beginning of cultivation : - "以我之精，合天地萬物之精 ; 以我之神，合天地萬物之神 " (" Cultivate our jing to integrate with the jing of the cosmic ; cultivate our Shen to integrate with the Shen of the cosmic ") - "能見精神而久生；能忘精神而超生 " (" Those who see and grasp jing and Shen can live very long ; those who forget what their jing and Shen are live beyond the boundary of life " ) Notice that these are not only talking about levels but also ways or methods ; in fact , all superb things in Zen and Daoism are , in philosophical terms, the unity of epistemology , methodology and ontology ; and , any trial of separating them implies steps and differentiations, therefore means entanglements in cultivation .

Jing , the essence of life , is unlikely to be kept or consolidated ; it is after having it changed to Qi, can we keep and consolidate it . Similarly, we cannot keep Qi and consolidate it for long and for a big amount ; it is after having it changed to Shen, can we keep and consolidate it safely and substantially . Jing and Qi are always in dispersal status . So, the law of the increase of disorder , entropy , not just applies to the physical world but also to the world of Qi , yet only up to the so-called post-heavenly level . Beyond that , say after our success of nourishing embryonic breathing and break open the Magic Gateway , the law stops to be true because now we no longer solely get our own Qi to live, but limitless Qi outside . Notice that external world always "steals" our jing and qi secretly in scenarios unnoticed , that is when we are in sleep, in anger, in depression ..etc , it is only after our capability of consolidating the mindless Mind ("不神之神" ) that can us be safeguarded from those secret loses and reverse that one-dimensional time's arrow towards aging and death.. There is in fact a dynamic balance between qi (with jing assimilated ) and Shen , the more jing and qi we accumulate , the higher a level of Shen we need to reach in order to keep those qi and jing secured , not leaking , yet it is in sleep , in frustration , in anger , in unrest ..etc that we can't consolidate our mind to do ( read the famous book " Yin Fu Jing" ("陰符經" ), a Daoist classic next to Laotze and Chungtze. )

There are many differences between Daoist alchemy and TCM / Acupuncture , people who come from the Acupuncture or TCM background may already have sensed them , and be perplexed by them , so some explication seems to be necessary : 1) TCM is for healing diseases or delaying aging , Daoist alchemy is for getting rid of aging and for immortality , both physical and spiritual as they are inseparable ( the socalled Xing and Meng dual cultivation); 2) While mastering TCM requires you to know well the 14 channels and those acupuncture points on them , Daoist alchemy ,as a concentrated , simplified version of TCM , focuses only on the DU and Ren channels ; and , what you need to know are those few acupuncture points on the DU channels that will potentially make you stuck when doing the Micro-Cosmic Circulation . ( Notice that the Macro-Cosmic Circulation is not classified as your qi spreading from the DU and the Ren channels to other channels, but as your internal qi spreading outside of your body , linking it to the external energy ) 3)Different from acupuncturists who pay attention to channels and acupuncture points , the three Dantians ( low, middle and upper) , areas where qi likely arises , are what the Daoist alchemy practitioners interested in. Dantian is always first a Daoist alchemist term , then a term adopted by TCM's medical qigong . 4) To master the basics of TCM , you need to know well what the Six stages ( Tai Yang, Yang Ming, Shao Yang, Tai Yin..etc) are and the 5-element model , however, in Daoist alchemy hardly does it pay any attention to the Six stages ; what you need to know is something about the 5-element model , yet not to that extent of their intricate relations for healing , say , in order to make the son (kidney) strong, you tonify the grandfather (spleen) beforehand ; anyway, the 5-element model is under the Qi framework . Do not mix up the Chinese 5-element model with other cultures' , and claim that Wood or Metal is one of the basic elements that forms the world . No, the Chinese culture is always a qi dominated culture that most other things originate from it and be manipulated by it . 5) Formula : In order to heal ,if you are a TCM doctor, you need to write a formula that targets at those symptoms , and the formula is always composed of parts of plants , insects or minerals; if you are a acupuncturist , your formula is a group of acupuncture points that can deal with certain symptoms . However, in Daoist alchemy , your formula is the looks seemingly simple formula : Jing + Qi = Shen or Jing=> Q=> Shen . What you make use of is just your mind, breathing or body movements , or their combinations. 6) Qi's meaning in different contexts : In TCM , Qi , no matter it is the Zong Qi (" 宗氣") inside of our chest or the Wei Qi ("衛 氣" ) , qi guarded just outside of our skin surface , all is classified as yang , and our blood/ essence ( and other forms of liquid: sweat, phlegm, tears.. ) classified as yin . However, in Daoist alchemy , all qi, including those we initialize from our dantians , is classified as yin Qi because what Daoist alchemy targets at is the pre-heavenly yang Qi , and from that higher level , all the postnatal/ material things below , even in an invisible form like qi , is yin . It is that hidden pre-heavenly Qi , which has both yang and yin aspects , as a Taiji , be the source of life . So here we get two levels of things , the pre-heavenly ( not necessarily equals to prenatal ) and the post-heavenly( not necessarily equals to postnatal ) , and they both can further be divided into yin and yang , which is therefore called " 二重天地, 四個陰陽" ( " Two levels of Heaven and Earth , and four yin and yang") . Of course , it is an important concept in Daoist alchemy for it tells us the boundaries : what we can achieve within what arena ; however, hardly does TCM require it because what TCM works with are just the post-heavenly qi and blood/ essence in channels , vessels, organs and skin surface . Maybe the only term of TCM that related to the pre-heavenly level is the "Mengmen" ( literally means " Gate of Life") . Liu-I Ming's writings do talk about the Two-level concept, but not in its relation with TCM.