dwai

The Yijing has the cosmology of Taiji to 10,000 things. The Taijitu Shuo (later text) completes the correlation iinm. I don't think they are speaking about different things. Daoist teachers (such as my Teachers' teacher) also teach along these lines. It is not surprising that these concepts fructified later, because man's thinking changed over the ages too..more rational, etc.

Daodejing 42 seems to be an early enough work that covers this.

Shh...don't reveal my secrets

There is nothing other than the Dao. So -- Void, Dao, One, two, three or 10,000 things are not separate. And there is no independent existence of the 10,000 things (ie material/objective reality).

void, form, 10,000 things are all aspects of Dao. They are not separate from it.

Dao gives birth to One One gives birth to Two Two give birth to Three Three give birth to ten-thousand things The ten-thousand things carry yin and embrace yang They mix these energies to enact harmony

Interesting thing is, when one is firmly established in awareness, no substance can affect them. https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-gives-maharaji-the-yogi-medicine/

i suggest people should stop entertaining this poor soul...he’s just seeking attention. But paradoxically the more he gets the more he craves it. Send him love and light instead.

Maybe staring too long at one's own torch makes one lose one's shite...

https://www.freebsd.org/copyright/daemon.html That was a wonderful book that served me well in the formative initial years of my career

Exactly. How else would we know what I agreed with (or in other cases, disagreed with)?

how many of us have actually encountered any deity at all in a realistic manner? Are deities mainly relegated to intellectual/emotional analysis and connection or are they actually divine beings with whom one can connect? I think that would be a far more interesting topic to discuss. Can we connect to these deities? If so, what are some of the ways in which one can connect to a deity? share some experiences Once we get that, we can probably compare/contrast deities across traditions.

Well given that there is nothing apart from the Self, even the Dark night is nothing but an appearance alone. Of course, when one is going through it, without right knowledge, it can be far more painful that it would be, with the right knowledge.

It is what Daoists call “facing the inner demons”. It is transcended by right knowledge and fortitude.

Who lives out said destiny? Your Self is always free and empty.

The biggest problem is no one ever tells the person going through the "dark night" that the mental stuff that rises is not Who they really are. I struggled for 5-6 years with this but managed to doggedly continue with my Taiji and meditation practice. All sorts of crap rises up to the surface. More we push it away, the stronger it becomes, tailspinning rapidly out of control. That's why a group (sangha) and a teacher are so important.

and isn't that such a tragedy? Wonderful explanation. And I see what you see too. I do think that taking the life of another being is a difficult task and tends to take us away from that innocence though. I also understand that not every culture follows the same set of rules of conduct and have the same sense of morality etc. I'm not referring to morality here, but more a spiritual thing. Like how we feel when we get into a fight and hurt another person. It is painful to us as we are inflicting the pain on another.

Please let me know when I can ignore Drew Hempel's posts never mind...found it

The way I understood the OP was -- "innocent" as in not weighed down by concepts of how and what one should be. We see that in children before a certain age, before peer pressure and parental/societal pressure takes over and they start forming a self-image they have to live up to (or hold and protect a set of positions wrt. said image). I do agree that tribal societies are a lot more simple, but they too suffer from a similar malaise as members of the "modern" societies do - project, uphold and protect an image of who and what they are. Perhaps not with as great a magnitude as in today's Facebook, Twitter and instagram cultures. For instance, X is a great warrior and hunter, Y is a medicine woman and wise, and so on...

So he is innocent except when he kills with his blowgun? we should not conflate simplicity with innocence perhaps?

When you uncover your true Self, it is more ecstatic than a 1000 orgasms, for sure. Dont worry about sexual energy movements. The kundalini work that I’ve done doesn’t do anything with orgasms. It does have to do with breath work and maintaining bandhas (locks) with breath retention. It takes about 1.5-2 years of regular practice under the supervision of a good teacher before you can start moving the energy up the central channel.

Seeing the responses on the "Light is awareness" thread (overwhelming amount of material from one attention-hungry individual in particular), it became clear that many don't understand that one cannot gain spiritual understanding by using the thinking mind alone. Looking for "the truth" in phenomena will never lead one there. One cannot understand the world by looking for answers in the objects therein. One has to look for the/look at the source. The source is not out there, it is your own awareness. So there is always time - stop seeking the truth in this and that, here and there. And when you become silent and still, you will find it in the core of your being.

It is better to follow an indirect path when it comes to the MCO. Learn some Qigong or Taijiquan and move the energy through those forms instead. Using the mind to drive the energy in the MCO is direct. Inducing it with moving of a form is indirect. You take Taijiquan's Upward and downward form. When you do it, the MCO will automatically start happening. Similarly with other forms.