Apech

that's a bit limiting on the term 'cultivation' - which is used also in sanskrit 'bhavana'.

You have to bear in mind also the universal (as far as I know) link between 'kingship' and spiritual development. It doesn't have to be one or the other it can be both/and.

By essence is meant the essence of qi. When qi follows the Dao there is birth. With birth there is awareness. From awareness comes knowing. With knowing the limit is reached.

That's partly true and I see where you're coming from but actually if you respect the text and listen properly you get a lot more than intellectual understanding. You could say you get contact with the sage who wrote it.

Sorry, I must have dozed off, is Brexit still a thing?

disenfranchised?

It's a temptation for us Westerners to compare Buddha and Christ - but it is really a mistake. The Gautama Buddha was the Buddha for this age but before him there were others and after him Maitreya Buddha. Buddha just means awakened one - so anyone awakened is a Buddha. In Mahayana and vajrayana there are sambhoga kaya Buddhas also - although they are sometimes termed Bodhisattvas.

Sex Oedipus

The Buddha was part of the shramana tradition in the Eastern Gangetic region of North India (along with Jains and Ajivekas etc). It seems he achieved awakening after trying the various extant schools of the time including Samkhya and so on - but he rejected these approaches and achieved his enlightenment alone under the bodhi tree on the basis of his own insight into the nature of reality. At first he thought his realisation impossible to communicate in words but on being exhorted to teach began with the Four Noble Truths - which I guess could be considered to be the beginning of Buddhism - but of course they wouldn't have called it Buddhism but Dharma a term held in common with the Sanskrit based cultures of Northern India. No he didn't write anything. He lived in pre-literate times in India. His teachings were first written down in the 1st Century BC as the Pali Canon (as well as other collections) based on oral transmission to that date. So this is 200 - 300 years after his paranirvana. They are considered by many to be authentic and extensive - but I would say they are inevitably selective towards the prevailing form of Buddhism at that time which was scholastic monasticism. It depends on your point of view. There is a significant difference between the Pali Canon and Mahayana sutras - not just in content and emphasis but also in the way they were supposed to be used. Sravaka sutras are meant for listeners - while mahayana sutras are more participatory and were transmitted from the 'holder' to the audience. They are not necessarily deeper but perhaps more aimed at a different mind-set - one motivated by faith and energy rather than rational analysis. The earliest mahayana sutras were written down more or less at the same time as the other sutras - and originally there were both mahayana and hinayana practioners side by side in the same monasteries - so the historical development of one from the other is a myth. I think the Buddha was making the point that as a teacher of non-dualism that quite a lot of what he said is provisional - or skillfull means - but has been taken as absolute truth by some who followed him. He taught in 84,000 ways (a number which can be taken to mean infinite) because he addressed the needs of his audiences - as these varied - also the Truth = Dharma is not directly expressible in words - so spontaneously in the moment what can 'work' in one case is not always appropriate.

11. When your body is not aligned, The inner power will not arrive. When the centre lacks stillness, The heart-mind will not be well-ordered. Align your body and assist inner power— Then it will gradually arrive on its own. I'm sure that gathering, transforming and so on are involved. I'm not saying the 'chest/heart' is not the MDT in some sense - I'm just saying the term MDT is specific to Neidan because it uses alchemical terms and images and this is because of the idea of creating the elixir or pill - and hence parts of the subtle body become fields in which to do this (Dantien). The Neiye is much older than the Neidan and probably is one of its antecedents. Because of this, to respect the text, I prefer to let the text speak to me without imposing any supposed framework upon it if you see what I mean. I learned this reading Egyptian texts - upon which many impose theories about what they mean. But if you suspend all theory and just listen to what the text itself is saying, using only references from the same text so it is self-consistent, clearer insights emerge into what is being said. To give it a fancy name this is called a phenomenological approach to textual analysis. If you start to introduce terms external to the source text the clarity of the original message is lost. However afterwards when understanding has been gained it is possible to look outside for comparison and so on. Obviously this approach is for me - I'm not trying to tell you that you have to approach things in this way if you don't want to. But I am just explaining why I am picky about certain terms and so on.

To be honest I find other human beings alien enough already without having to think about extraterrestials

It's Hathor not Isis - and Horus son of Osiris and the other figure is the king making offerings. Is this original or a copy of something @Jeff ????

Contextually calling it the MDT would only make sense if it was 'middle' i.e. there is a LDT and UDT as well and Dantien only makes sense if the medicine or pill is being generated. In many ancient systems the heart is the seat of the mind not the head. Mind in the sense of centre of volition, character, attention, emotion and so on. From what I have read 'jing' in Neidan means the most condensed form of qi which exists above the physical level. Here the text seems to be suggesting that all earthly things (represented by the five grains), all heavenly things represented by the patterns of stars and the in-betweeny things of ghosts and spirits rely on jing to exist. So jing is their essence. I don't get the sense that this puts it above qi but more as the agent of manifestation of qi (?).

What is the word used for 'collect or store'? - it could have the sense of being cultivated by the sage ... stored up ... or more like collecting like dew collects on grass ... in other words the jing does this naturally.

The whole sense of this passage seems to be that it is the essence which is the active agent. (?)

100,000 songs of Milarepa - women's role in the dharma. Listen, you fortunate girl, You who have wealth and faith! If you felt fine in meditating on the sky, so be it with the clouds. Clouds are but manifestations of the sky; Therefore, rest right in the sphere of the sky! The stars are but reflections of the sun and moon; If you can meditate on them, then why not on the stars? Therefore, absorb yourself in the light of the sun and moon! Bushes and trees are but manifestations of a mountain; If you can meditate well on that, so be it with the trees! Therefore, abide in the steadfastness of the mountain! Waves are but the movement of the ocean; If you can meditate well on that, why not on the waves? Therefore, dissolve yourself right in the ocean! The disturbing Thought-flow manifests the mind; If you can meditate well on that, so be it with the Thought-flow! Therefore, dissolve yourself into the very Essence of Mind!

I don't want a second referendum. My guess is that Labour/Con will do a deal to head off Farage's Brexit party which seems to be gaining traction (even though they are just Tories anyway) while UKIP is loosing ground (probably because of the negative press about Tommy Robinson and Carl Benjamin). So stand by for May's deal with beefed up worker's rights and customs union - that's the warmed up soup we will be served.

I try to be kind but not to overdo it. So I like to keep a balance. For instance if I see an old or disabled person struggling to get across a busy road. I'll help them half way across.

he might be an unpleasant person but he is clearly being hunted down by the deep state

I keep reading the title of this thread as 'Tin Hat Daoist Sect'. Luckily I was already wearing my tin hat when I read it.

At last a post I agree with.

Some of us have a lot to be humble about.