dwai

If you go 100% yin, you will get yang. if you go 100% yang, you will get yin. In fact, yin and yang always have a little of the opposite in them because otherwise they cannot exist (yang will dissipate into emptiness and yin will collapse into emptiness).

The sun shines for all. The blind can’t see. Those with eyes can. If one is asleep the light from the sun eventually wakes them up, simply by shining. No “effort” is required.

I found that for me personally, having the correct alignments shown to me (also learnt experimentally by adjusting after preliminary postural alignments were shown to me), made a HUGE difference. After standing in the wuji posture, gently move your crown point (by shifting your upper torso slightly) forward and backward until you feel an energetic "click". The crown point suspended should feel like a little tornado going off. Similarly move your crown point side to side until you feel the "click". Think of it like fine-tuning alignment through the cross-hairs of a scope. You will notice that you will end up leaning slightly forward with your upper torso (maybe 4-5 degrees at most) from the perpendicular axis (of how you normally stand). I noticed that most people tend to let their chin float up too much. Tuck your chin such that your eyes look around 20-30 degrees below the horizontal plane of how you "normally" stand (with chin floating upward naturally). Relax the muscles in your upper chest (like the flesh drops down towards your stomach). it is a very subtle change. This will help drop the qi to into your lower dan tien. Let your elbows drop but open the armpits a little (like you are holding an egg in each arm pit). That will result in your elbows sticking out (side to side) slightly. Let your finger tips gently rest against your thighs (either in front or on the side). This might take repetitive review during a single standing session as our bodies tend to revert to old habits subconsciously. When these alignments click, within a few minutes there will begin a pouring sensation towards the stomach (like the stomach is filling up with a fluid movement). Resting the mind on the dan tien (about 2-3" below the navel and about 2-3" inside the body) will result in a filling up sensation there which will then start pouring over. The belt meridian should start lighting up, and a flow including the feet should start as well with sufficient standing duration. T

It takes time to become sensitive to Qi flow. Also as @Fa Xin pointed out, lying down on your back and relaxing the entire body can also help you become more aware of the Qi. All it takes is the ability to recognIze it. Once the initial recognition happens it will always be there.

Stand and relax more. As you become more relaxed you will

just stand in the wuji posture for 10 minutes at a time, after applying the basic structural guidelines + relax your stomach, rest your mind on your lower dan tien and do long breaths in a smooth and soft manner. You will feel qi flowing in your body. This will also help you sink your qi and potentially reduce your headaches (which you feel in form of chaotic movements in your head). With enough practice you can sink your qi to your dan tien instantaneously. Qi can feel different for different people. My first thought on seeing you post title was "Qi feels like Qi". Because imho, that is exactly what it is. But our mind can interpret it into sensations we are familiar with (electric, magnetic, hot, cold, etc etc).

Ultimately even the “I Am” is only reflected light and the root of the mind.

I understand. The mind/ego is just a process. Who is aware of the mind kicking in, dwelling there for a while and then going back to alert awareness? Is it not in awareness itself that all those things are happening? what I'm pointing to is that we are not the mind, so the practice of minimizing the mind, etc are great for a good direct understanding of our true nature. Once we grasp our true nature (in a flash), it is just a matter of not getting swept away by the processes that rise and fall in it (our true nature aka awareness). In other words, to even posit that the "ego propels this or that", is to re-inforce it's existence as something that is separate from alert awareness. It is not. It is just a wave in the proverbial ocean.

well said! Who is aware of being in the "I am" awareness vs "ego" awareness? It is okay to let the mind do its thing. It only reacts to stimuli. After reacting, it rests again. Does the mind really "interfere" or is it just a misidentification with the mind (aka ego) that results in the sense of interference? If you are aware that you are not the mind, then why blame the mind? It is just an instrument.

Ego is just a function, an appearance (or self-imposed limitation as you say). If you try to find its source you can't find it. The bizarre thing about "enlightenment" is that no matter what, it is never not there. You are never not enlightened. Yet, due to the self-imposed limitation, we look here and there for it, not realizing we are already that which we are looking for

Here “brain” likely is a mistranslation. He means “mind”. And the “light” is light of awareness. Ramana was awakened in a flash when he was 16 years old. He didn’t have to sit in meditation for 14 years for that btw. He is explaining the process of waking world, dream world and causal nescience, as explained in the Mandukya Upanishad.

I was reading my first teacher's notes - his records of what his master taught him over several years (he maintained it like a diary), which he gave to my taiji brother and myself. He writes in his notes from 2000 -- This points directly to non-duality and the context in which works like DDJ should be studied and understood. Feel free to discuss

Love it! How about "awake"? Does waking up from a dream entail "end of the dream"? If so, is the dream destroyed? I see what you mean, as destruction carries a violent connotation to me too. I prefer "no mind state" or "non-grasping mind state"...if I had known this long back, might have not taken me so long to appreciate it I too like non-attachment better. How about unfettered?

There isn’t anything separate to destroy. That realization is in itself the destruction of the mind/ego (which is nothing but an idea that it is something unique and different from the the “ocean”)

It’s really an idea. It sets in motion certain questions such as “what is the mind?” And “can it even be destroyed?”. also “what does the destruction of the mind entail?” These and more are answered in practice alone.

when time runs out...give up the desire for time and space. Just be. Free.

If you read the book “Nine nights with the Daoist master”, master Liao breaks it down for us quite nicely. But by alchemy I don’t mean methods per se. It’s a lineage transmission which is always available for those who are ready.

More on the topic of "being One with everything"...the little "i" must go. More...

Yes that is correct. I'd strongly recommend reading "Nine Nights...". The way he explains the DDJ in it, is what made it real for me. Thanks for the reference.

In my understanding and experience, everything is fundamentally subjective. Even the objective reality is predicated on a subject Good question. I interpret that as a statement of fact - "In order to understand the Dao de jing, you have to understand that there are no others apart from you..." The DDJ are the teachings of a zhenren, and he (Lao Tzu) clearly indicates that his words are easy to understand but hard to follow. Most who hear them laugh at them, only a few half-understand them and only the rare few are able to follow them.

The thing is, I am not. I merely am relaying some of my first teacher's notes of his master's teachings. That said, I never once found any major difference between AV and Daoism as taught to me from a view perspective (in the 18 years I've been studying in this lineage) , except that Daoism/Alchemy deals with energy whereas AV deals with consciousness. In any case, the OP is intended to have people discuss why such a statement would have been made in the first place. Not about me or my opinions Why would anyone be abandoned? I think you missed the point I made earlier

I would look at it this way -- Understand that there is no other. Call it Dao (or something else - it is just a label). Everything and everyone that appears to be, arises and dissipates in this Dao. Once the understanding is complete (and in a flash the understanding fructifies into realization), all things are part of you and you yourself. How can a sage then not do all the things that are outlined?

Its not that I don't like the chapter. OP is from perspective of understanding. You're posting from perspective of being. There's a difference imho.

The grandmaster of my lineage trained in Daoist alchemy and taiji quan since the age of 12 in Taiwan. I'm quoting from my teacher's notes again below, taken directly from Advanced Master classes taught by his master --

The grandmaster of my lineage says that the political parts of DDJ are just bolt-ons and somewhat irrelevant. DDJ is primarily a text of internal alchemy.