dwai

Relative is relatively true, absolute is absolutely true

The relative is just the absolute viewed through the lens of ignorance. In Advaita Vedanta, the Material universe is called the body of Brahman. The information embedded in the universe (collective conscious/subconscious) is called the Golden Womb, and the seeds of causality are called "God." The individual is none other than Brahman, only deluded by ignorance into considering itself a limited being in an unlimited universe.

Moderator Note: You had your chance to reconsider and introspect about your behavior. It didn't work. The mod team will take action on this shortly.

There is a basic jiben gong for the hip and waist that will help with it. After some time you will start to feel the flow of qi in the belt meridian.

Conditioning is all things we learn in the course of our life. Is it bad? Not necessarily. The very conditioning we acquire is what makes us capable of survival. But the problem is that there is no knowledge system that is applied to also help us recognize what this conditioning is. Without knowing what is conditioning/acquired nature, we can’t recognize our true nature.

That's a very loaded question. Everyone has original nature, but it doesn't come through in most cases because of the layers of conditioning that obscure it. In my experience, especially around my teacher - especially when he initiated me, layers of conditioning fell away, even though I had been a serious practitioner for 15 years, thirteen of which were in the daoist arts, before meeting him, and had more than enough theoretical knowledge and understanding. But that one touch of his index finger to my forehead resulted in my remaining in a blissed-out state for almost 18 months, and veils of ignorance dropped off. It took me a while to understand or articulate what had happened, but I realized that how I was feeling was his natural state 24x7. Thankfully it has been my natural state for several years now as well, even amidst the most crazy turmoil in my life. Similarly some others I've met, who are not daoists/dao practitioners, but when they speak I can sense the words coming from direct experience rather than intellectual knowledge. Around such people, there is usually an air of clarity and serenity. But the thing to remember is, true nature (as opposed to the conditioned personality) recognizes true nature.

Yup. My teacher is one such person. I've met a few other such people as well.

This is wonderful! In the tradition I belong to, De is considered a full microscopic version of the Dao that is contained within each of us. In my understanding, it is our essential nature/true nature, wrapped in layers of personality/conditioning. So De is not necessarily a set of "virtues" or "actions" or "qualities", but our true nature, which is none other than Dao itself. Being Dao, of course when the layers of conditioning are set aside/recognized for what they are, right action, qualities, and virtues naturally emanate, through the individual.

Friends, A fellow traveler of the Dao is struggling with stage 4 cancer and could use some financial assistance. I don’t know Stephen in person, but am friends with him on FB. He seems like a standup person. Please contribute what you can to the GoFundMe set up for him. https://gofund.me/3e60f553

In the Temple style tai chi and daoist meditation system, the process outlined is as follows - Learn to feel qi Learn to flow the qi Connect with the Dao and follow how IT flows There are a few reasons why it is done that way. According to the Master of this tradition, our life force (qi) is subtle and is missed in plain sight due to the less-subtle things that constantly keep happening - both physical and mental activities. When we use strength, we lose the sensitivity we were born with to feel this life force. It is like the signal within us is masked by a louder, noisier signal. Similarly, the mind, which is attuned to grasping at gross objects outside with the help of our senses, cannot sense this subtle flow within us. So we must eschew strength and outwardly focused mental activities to begin feeling the subtle signal within. After we have learned to recognize and become familiar with that subtle signal of our life force, we must learn how to flow it. We are making it stronger by paying attention to and exercising it. With time and diligent practice, it will become strong enough that we can reconnect with the piece of Dao embedded within us - the De. This De is our way to connect to the Dao. Once we learn to connect with the Dao, we must eschew our volition to allow the Dao to guide us. We learn to follow it. The more we follow it, the better we get at letting go of our "artificial" mental activities and surrendering to it.

Breath, mind and prana/qi are tied together. For most people, regulating the mind is not easy, because their identities are so tightly woven into their minds. So we start with the breath. Regulate the breath —> regulate the qi —> regulate/still the mind. With practice we can go directly to the mind level without needing to invoke the breath and the qi.

Find a good teacher

Mandukya Upanishad Verse 7 न अन्तःप्रज्ञम्। न वहिःप्रज्ञम्। न उभयतःप्रज्ञम्। न प्रज्ञानधनम्। न प्रज्ञम्। न अप्रज्ञम्। अदृष्टम् अव्यवहार्यम् अग्राह्यम् अलक्षणम् अचिन्त्यम् अव्यपदेश्यम् एकात्मप्रत्यसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमम् शान्तं शिवम् अद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते विवेकिनः । सः आत्मा सः विज्ञेयः ॥ Transliteration na antaḥprajñam | na vahiḥprajñam | na ubhayataḥprajñam| na prajñānadhanam| na prajñam| na aprajñam| adṛṣṭam avyavahāryam agrāhyam alakṣaṇam acintyam avyapadeśyam ekātmapratyasāraṁ prapañcopaśamam śāntaṁ śivam advaitaṁ caturthaṁ manyante ( vivekinaḥ )| saḥ ātmā saḥ vijñeyaḥ || Meaning He who is neither inward wise, nor outward wise, nor both inward and outward wise, nor wisdom self gathered, nor possessed of wisdom, nor unpossessed of wisdom, He Who is unseen and incommunicable, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, and unnameable,Whose essentiality is awareness of the Self in its single existence, in Whom all phenomena dissolve, Who is Calm, Who is Good, Who is the One than Whom there is no other, Him they deem the fourth; He is the Self, He is the object of Knowledge.

In my experience there is initially a body-high which is indeed like being intoxicated with some exhilarating substance. It transforms into a very empty clarity. The body buzz doesn’t go away really, but the mind, which was under the sway of the buzz becomes free.

Only as the OP. Awaken’s posts are noise to me, and I don’t welcome them as the OP, which is my prerogative.

no one said breathing is the only one. Anapanasati is preparatory for shamatha-Vipassana. Dao has a beginning? If so, then it must have an end. If that is the case, then it is not the eternal/real dao. And it can certainly be spoken about.

You clearly don’t know about anapanasati in that case @awaken In any case, I don’t think you can add any value to this discussion. So please make yourself scarce.

Moderator Note: As promised, the thread is now locked. Anyone making any Mo Pai posts will be banned.

If it references Mo Pai, then yes.

Moderator Note: Mo Pai (or any other derivatives thereof) are strictly prohibited. Any further discussions referencing Mo Pai related stuff will be immediately and unceremoniously locked and pitted.

I've learned "seed" sounds as part of Daoist mediation. These are mantras at their very core.

Those interested in finding out more about scientific study of such phenomena can take a look at this study done at the Menninger Institute in the 1960s on Swami Rama https://swamij.com/pdf/swami-rama-beyond-biofeedback.pdf

Enjoy

To trace the etymology, Mrita means dead in sanskrit. So A-mrita literally means "not-dead". It generally used to refer to the substance that produces immortality. But being an Indian language, it may mean many things depending on context (and its derivatives). https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/apte_query.py?qs=अमृत&searchhws=yes&matchtype=exact