Wuji108

I would love to see a listing of Taoist Temples in the States and where they are, their lineage, and something about their history. Would this be possible to add to the forum as a resource?

@Todd Thank you for laying all of this out...

I differentiate between Qi and Spirit. If you look at the 3 treasures: Jing, Qi, Shen/essence,energy, spirit then the Jing is closest to physical, Qi to energy, and Shen to spirit or to the driver... We could use the car analogy to say that Jing is the car, Qi is the gasoline and Shen is the driver. The spirit is the source of intention...Intention is the source of manifestation. The pre-heaven spirit is also the thing that carries through life to life. The Jing and the Qi are exhaustible. Then there is the post-heaven spirit - the ego, emotions and intelligence... and the pre-heaven spirit - the intuition, the intention, the observer Just a few thoughts...

How very true - to maintain practice while carrying on ordinary life so that the practice is ordinary life shifts us radically...the the ordinary human becomes the very best ordinary human and eventually morphs, quietly, without ceremony into the sage or immortal on earth...

Not sure about the proof aspect - direct experience of all the life threads removes the need for "proof". If we are out of balance then we have karma, if we are in balance then no karma. What takes us out of balance? attachment, desire, emotion, ego, all those things that bring us back into the mortal plane of existence. But karma also has an element of time associated with it - past action creates future effect - an activation of "Return is the motion of the Tao" even while "there is no time, there is no space" and all actions and reactions exist simultaneously and without the constraint of time, the threads of existence coil together through time and space...

Woops - posted twice same message...

The reason for monks to remain celibate is for preservation of Jing which is lost through ejaculation in males and in females more through menstruation. But complete celibacy/no orgasm can cause stagnation in the lower Jiao (the belly) so unless you have practices for keeping the Jing/Qi from stagnating you should have orgasm at least once per week/month/quarter depending on your age from a pure health perspective. That being said I do think we create links to people through sexual encounters. Energetic links. Those links can be "undone" when the attachment to the person, the role, the drama, the emotion, etc. are released. I tried to sever all those links at once a few years back - this was not a good way to do it - some couldn't be cut, I ended up ill and injured for about a week afterward, and then all kinds of people that I hadn't heard from or thought of in years popped into my life for the next few months. For the links that couldn't be cut, I had to gradually lessen them first. There were a lot of unexpected changes in the people around me during this process, that may have had to do with the severing of the links, especially for my children (not that we'd had sex, but a link had been established with them preceding birth). So if you want to do something like that, based on my own idiocy, I would suggest going a little more slowly...

I have no problem accessing Tao Bums from China - am in Wudangshan near ShiYan City (around 5 hours from Xian.) To access Facebook they may need to set up a VPN Tunnel...not sure exactly how to do it...

Hi Cameron, I am in Wudang Shan for just three more weeks and then I head back to the US. Have been a "Wandering Taoist" for the past three years and not sure where I'll land next... Where in China are you? Best, Corinne

The Ayurvedic/Buddhist 5 elements are ether, air, water, fire, earth as opposed to the Taoist 5 elements which are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The two sets do not correlate directly, although there are, of course, similarities.

The perspective of reconciliation of opposing forces comes into play here - recognizing when enough is enough - I have enough to feed myself today, so that is enough...I don't have to store so much food in my pantry that much of it sits there for years. I don't have to have ten outfits for each season, I don't have to compete with the Jones. At the same time, yes, I do live so I need food, shelter, clothing, etc, and it is okay to live above subsistence level. The universe will provide. Emotion is natural, and a gift - when is it responded to and acknowledged at its point of origin and then released. The moment we attach to emotion and create drama we are attaching. The moment drama enters the picture, a "need" or attachment has been activated. We attach also to different roles - for example - I may put myself into the role of hero - rushing in to help/heal people. Or I may habitually put myself into the role of victim - attach to the role of victim. This form of attachment is the subject of Taoist Xing (essential nature) training. If we attach to a role, who are we really? And then that brings in the whole question of dialectics - how do we move beyond the yin/yang of the universe? What is the dynamic that lets us bring indulgence and abstention into balance? How do we get to the point of knowing when enough is enough and moving past a particular attachment? How do we shift our perspective to be present in the contentment of the moment and acceptance of what is now? This is such a huge subject - attachment takes so many forms, beyond attachment to things and people...

attachment, desire, need - all aspects of the same thing - the delusion that we are separate from the Tao, that we don't have access to everything, that the world is illusion, etc.... so no difference in essence, perhaps just in object and in quality. Healthy vs unhealthy qualitative and quantitative - does it take you closer to heaven or further from heaven - does it help you to improve your frequency (become more yang) or does it degrade your frequency/block you even more from direct experience of the Tao. Eventually even the desire to be done with the wheel of life, the desire to merge with the Tao has to be released. To be in that state of direct union/direct experience...to be in absolute stillness, there has to be no need...no ego, no mind, no judgment. The beauty is the recognition of the natural human state and so no bitterness of where we are now. It is simply whatever it is. The question then is what action will you take... Initially we do "need" the healthy desire to change, to improve, to go to heaven, to fulfill our life purpose and mission, but when we approach the gate, we have have to have no need...

Taoists believe we need to let go of attachment, ego and the control of the five thieves (five senses) all of which can take us off balance and take us out of the internal harmony which is required for internal alchemy. There is a story of Zhen Wu (the Truth Warrior - patron immortal of Wudang Shan - who was an incarnation of the Jade Emperor). The Jade Emperor was sitting in heaven one day when he saw these beautiful lights at the edge of heaven - curiosity arose in his heart and the desire to know what the lights were. Immediately, with the advent of desire, one of his 72 spirits split off and was incarnated into a baby that was to be born to the King of one of the regions of China (sorry can't remember the region's name). While the splinter of the Jade Emperor's spirit was down on earth, the Jade Emperor was not present and the business of heaven was not taken care of (for 4 and half days - while Zhen Wu cultivated for 42 years on earth). There is a lot more to the story, but in this case, the belief that we are "cast out of heaven" when desire arises in our hearts is the key element. Our objective is to eliminate (eventually) all earthly desire and then eventually to also let go of the healthy desire to go to heaven. The means for doing this vary... For example, one of the 8 Immortals had to overcome his desire for sex, so he went to live in a house of prostitution. Eventually he lost his desire for sex (I think it maybe took him 19 years or something like that...) But, yes, we want to eliminate desire...