Zhuo Ming-Dao

This sounds like a very dogmatic statement of belief, Josh. I try to keep my mind open to the possibilities and I only form loose opinions after I have had personal experience to back my metaphysics. I have experienced the out of body state and traveled to heavenly realms. This does not mean that I am convinced that it was an objective experience and there is an afterlife, but I am open to the possibilities. I also admit that some people have experienced past life memories. This also does not mean that past lives necessarily do or do not exist. They are all philosophical models based on many personal experiences (and some cultural bias) to understand the greater reality. If someone becomes fixated on the existence or nonexistence of an afterlife state, they are also setting themselves up in a dualistic model. Consciousness is so much more than Is or Is Not. Of course I agree, though, that you should not allow the existence (or nonexistence) of afterlife rewards (or worldly rewards) to impede or otherwise influence your practice and your experience of life in the moment. Also, as a side note, it is the skandas (the bundles/patterns of karmic habit energy) that move along after death in the Buddhist model, not pure consciousness. Not a soul. Anatman. Even in the Theravada school, you do not really reincarnate since there is no "you" to go anywhere. The attachment and desire (since they cannot be satisfied and extinguished through outside objects) continue to move forward (objects in motion stay in motion) until nirvana, when they are wound down and put out.

This is a free program, though it can be a little testy. http://ecl.iflytek.com/ListenToThis/# Otherwise, here are some basic pronunciation guides and sound bytes: http://mandarin.about.com/od/pronunciation/l/blsounds.htm http://www.travlang.com/languages/mandarin...e.mandarin.html All of these are for Mandarin Chinese that has been written with the pinyin system. In order to pronounce things correctly, you have to identify what language it is and what Romanization system it has been written with. While I know Japanese and Chinese, I cannot help too much with the Tibetan words.

Part of the problem that you are running into is that some of those Chinese words are written in pinyin and others in Wade-Giles. These are the two most popular systems for Romanization of Chinese characters (putting Chinese into letters). Pinyin is used primarily in mainland China and Wade-Giles is used mostly in Taiwan. Which one you use is actually a major and sensitive political issue too, as one system has become a sign of communism and the other of capitalism for many Chinese people. For example, despite the spellings, these are the same words and are pronounced the same in Chinese: Wade-Giles: Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu, Chuang Tsu, Peiking, Tai Ch'i Chuan, Ch'i Kung Pinyin: Dao De Jing, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Beijing, Taiji Quan, Qigong My attempt at a Little More Phonetic(?) Dao De Jing, Lao t'zu, Juang t'zu, Beijing, Taiji Chuan, Chi Gong You cannot outright say that one system looks more accurate to us, because English is a very messed up language when it comes to pronunciations. If you know any Romanian, though, Pinyin uses a slightly modified version of the Romanian system of pronunciation. Also, telling you how to pronounce these words would only get you a little closer unless I also gave you the tone markers (Chinese is a tonal language, and a native speaker probably wouldn't understand you with most of the Chinese words on your list without you saying them in the correct tone anyway). A lot of these words also have sounds that are not found in English, which is also why it is so hard to come up with a writing system that is agreeable to everyone. Your best bet will be to find an online tool that you can plug in the chinese word and have a chinese computer voice spit out the pronunciation.

I don't know about this book in particular, but I have read many of Eva Wong's other translations. She tends to translate quite loosely in order to express the what she feels is the original intent of the author given her personal experience with Taoist cultivation and her lineage. Therefore, her work is always very clear and understandable (given the subject), but her work is not very useful if you are looking for something in an academic setting or if you want a precise, literal translation. I tend to like her interpretations a lot when she is clarifying alchemical language or other esoteric matters, but not at all when she is putting a spin on Taoist political or philosophical writings (such as with her translation of Lieh Tsu). Edit: Actually, now that I think about it I did read some of this book when I was still an undergrad, but it largely went over my head at the time. Back then Taoism was still just Lao Tsu and Chuang Tsu for me, and I was not yet doing any real practice. But if my Taoist Studies professor thought enough of the book to order it for the school library, it must have some merit.

I did many years of qi visualization and qigong movement without actually feeling anything. After a few days working with Robert Bruce's techniques I felt energy moving through me and all of my other practices became far more meaningful and affective. After a few months the energy became ever present, stable, and very powerful. He explains all of the techniques in a very clear, direct way and once you get them down (which takes a very short period of time) they integrate very smoothly into what ever other energy meditation or spiritual practice you are working on. As Mikael said, he uses his own terminology for eastern concepts, which took me a little time to switch over in my brain. I personally would have preferred dan tien, chakra, qi, etc, but I understand why he replaced them for more direct western words. As for being in the theta state, I have found that I can do more fine, detailed energy work (breaking up blockages and opening chakras) when in this type of trance, but I more often use the techniques in the normal waking state.

I can do the full lotus in its complete form quite comfortably. I go into full lotus without having my hands ever touch my legs, but just by lifting my thighs and swinging my legs into place. I often do full lotus for my zazen practice, but I do not notice a particular energetic benefit. It is certainly the most stable position for seated meditation, though. You can perfectly angle your hips outward and properly curve your spine without any extra pressure and the maximum amount of relaxation of other muscles. When you do the half lotus or Burmese positions, extra muscles have to engage in order to stabilize you, which makes it that tiny bit harder to settle your mind. On the other hand, even with complete flexibility in the hip flexors, the full lotus will often cause your legs to fall asleep in extended sitting. I cannot go for more than 30 minutes without having one or both legs fall asleep, and I have been told by several 30+ year zazen veterans that this is to be expected. It is VERY common in the full lotus to have your legs become "like dead wood." Because I value my legs and do not like the idea of eventually crippling them from extended sittings, I always use half lotus if I know that I will be sitting for more that 25 minutes.

Both winzip and winrar are telling me that the file is corrupted. Is anyone else able to open the zip file?

Thank you for the very knowledgeable reply! Right now I am doing daily energy work (microcosmic orbit, 6 healing sounds, dantien breathing) and zazen, so if there were any good programs that you knew of that could help deepen any of these practices, I would greatly appreciate the advice. Also, my wife is expecting and she is interested in doing hypnosis for the birth. There are a wide variety of these programs on the market (Hypnobirthing Mongen Method, Hypnobabies, Eason's Hypnotic Childbirth, etc). Any advice? Also, is it significantly better to take the $300+ classes associated with these programs, or are listening to the disks and practicing every night enough?

As for audio programs, which ones do people recommend? Which professional hypnotists are better than others? Monroe Institute, Richard Bandler, Dick Sutphen, Edward Eason, etc? If I am going to invest time and money into a program, I would like to hear from others who have had good experiences first.

To answer the question of what such an enlightened society would look like, Laozi gives us chapter 80: This simple agrarian societal model was, interestingly, also the type of model that the classical libertarians originally had in mind. (John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, etc). I find this to be a beautiful ideal, but have we industrialized too far to see a potential for this type of simple life in the world? Also, would we be willing to sacrifice all that we have accomplished to live in a peaceful, enlightened world like this one?

I have latent empathic abilities which become much more pronounced after doing energy work, so when people are being emotional around me pick it up and reflect those emotions outward. This happens a lot at movie theaters because there are so many people emanating the same emotional state at the same time. I have learned techniques to defend myself, because while I don't mind picking up stray emotions, I do not like feeling other people's physical pain all the time.

-I typically use the good old Rinzai standard method of sitting and counting my breaths. I count on each exhalation and go up to ten before starting over. During the exhalation I focus on the number alone and during the inhalation my mind is totally silent. I also count when I am washing dishes or doing other simple activities. Eventually I hope to be able to just use concentration and breath without having to count, but I am not quite there yet. This technique is very effective, but it can take months of daily zazen before you are able to focus strongly enough to just be with the number. Background chatter that goes on during the count eventually disappears, as you build up the habit of focusing only on the number. The the exhale becomes a relaxing of the concentration, during which the mind relaxes and a much deeper, more profound silence floods in the gap between breaths. -I have also found that synchronizing my steps with my breathing increases my awareness and therefore decreases my mental chatter. -I love hearing any additional methods that people might have. True silence is one of the most amazing experiences we can have in this life. And thanks for the hypnosis idea, Awake. I think I will try out some self-hypnosis and see if it helps my practice. Does anyone have some good affirmations or other mind quieting hypnosis scripts?

This has been the state of things for decades in North Korea... I mean, the people think that Kim Jung Il invented the hamburger and their media and history books back up any nonsense that their glorious leader spouts. Did I mention that Jung Il is also the direct decedent of Korea's founder god?

This is one of the big reasons the Mahayana Buddhists switched to calling it enlightenment instead. All of the dependent origination, sunyata stuff was built up and elucidated by Nagarjuna, the founder of the Mahayana School, so yeah, you are going to see less of a focus on Nirvana and more on enlightenment the further you get from Theravada. In Mahayana, you are right, there is no true cessation. In fact, depending on how you read the pali cannon, it is not really there either. The Buddha refused to talk about paranirvana (after death). The implication is that he is not simply "gone," though.

Historically, the Nei Yeh is an amazing text. It is older than the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and yet it is undeniably mystic in orientation. This was the book that changed everything a decade ago for Western Taoist scholars, and proved finally that Taoism has always been more than just a pretty philosophy. Before this, the (rather silly) academic consensus was that the Religious Taoists stole the Dao De Jing and attached a bunch of folk beliefs to it during the late warring states/early Han dynasty periods. If you want to read more, read Howard Roth's essays, which are included in his translation of the text: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Tao-Foundat...7723&sr=8-1

The closest thing in Taoism is the ritual sword, which was either made from metal, peach wood, or from bond coins, and would be engraved with constellations. They were used primarily for exorcisms, ghosts and fox spirits. Here are some other Taoist ritual implements: http://eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activit...ls/pg4-6-10.htm

You could always do astral projection or lucid dreaming to have the experience of walking through walls. It is quite a strange feeling. You feel the thickness and density of the wall as it pushes against your energy body, and you see inside of the material, which is also a unique experience. This is a very worthwhile practice to experiment with, because it breaks down your mind's habituated expectations for reality and allows you to approach the real world in a more flexible way, lucid way. As for walking through walls while in the physical body... good luck. Just for fun, imagine what would happen if you could do it, but lost your concentration half way through the wall. And this made my day!

This is in Chandler?! That is less than 20 minutes drive from me, and I had no idea. I am going to have to go there just for the novelty... though I should probably wait until after this month's zazenkai. I don't think 12 hours of zen meditation and that food would mix too well Apparently, according to their website, people over 350 lbs. eat for free. I don't even know what to think of that http://www.heartattackgrill.com/

For those who mention the samurai self-inflicted sacrifice, I would counter that this was not considered suicide. Suicide is jisetsu, the ritual that they performed was seppuku. For the Japanese, these were very different things. Jisetsu (suicide) was always a very morally questionable practice that had very negative Buddhist consequences for the afterlife, because it was done out of an inability to cope with the true nature of reality. It came from weakness and a futile desire to escape. Seppuku (ritual self-sacrifice) came from a place of incredible strength. It was always a sacrifice of the body/self for some greater purpose. Your death was to restore the honor and strength of your lord or your family. And your death was done knowing that you would return to samsara, but again, this too was a sacrifice that you were accepting for the greater good of your clan. It was deliberately as painful as possible, and unless you had a second to help, it would frequently take days to die from the blood loss. In Japanese culture, this type of ultimate sacrifice was looked upon how we would look upon a soldier protecting his country by giving his life, or a firefighter or police officer dying in the line of duty. It was a heroic act. In the West we would lump both of these concepts together, but the Japanese consider the two to be very different (not just in the methods that were used).

The problem is two fold. First: Classical Chinese has very little grammar and the many characters can mean multiple things. Second: Laozi was a master of language, writing in poetry, and he constantly used double meanings and puns. He typically would layer his poems so that they could be read in a variety of ways. This was intentional. So translators can only really give you one side of any given poem without just giving you the characters. Adding to this problem is that there is a HUGE number of translations out there done by people who have NEVER seen it in Chinese. They just look at a bunch of translations and make there own version...and publish it... sigh. Luckily, Classical Chinese has ridiculously easy grammar and follows the English subject-verb-object pattern, so all you need to translate it yourself is a glossary. If you have any grammar questions beyond this, I suggest finding a copy of Pullyblank's Classical Chinese Grammar. I don't think that you will find it too hard, though. Last year I had a bunch of my 9th grade English students translate the first poem as a homework assignment without much explanation, and they did fine. For example: Dao ke Dao Fei Chang Dao. = The Way that can be traveled is not the lasting Way. Or = The Way that can be spoken is not the eternal Way. Both work perfectly, but mean very different things. Which did Laozi mean?! I vote for both. http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.php _____________________________________________________________________ And I just looked at your link and read their "translation".... Yeah....no. Just no. They clearly did not read the original characters, or if they did they are being very dishonest to the text and forcing it into something very, very Buddhist and nothing like the original. At all. Even slightly. Follow the link I gave above, read the Chinese by pointing your mouse over the characters, and see the definitions for yourself.

The Celestial Masters Sect was originally called the 5-Pecks of Rice sect because that was how much it cost to join their theocratic state. The originally had a lot of controversy surrounding them because they had sexual techniques that involved communal wives and other morally gray things of that nature. The Celestial Masters sect is still very active today and is one of the most practiced forms of Taoism in Taiwan. In fact, it is what most average people think of in China and Taiwan when they think of Taoism. In fact, most of my Taiwanese friends do not even know that there is more to Taoism than the Celestial Masters... Though that may be a symptom of their modern education. It is what one would call "religious Taoism" because it focuses on praying to the gods of the Taoist pantheon, fortune telling, charms, and magical scrolls that are burned and drank with water for spiritual cures. They also have priests and lie practitioners rather then monks and spiritual cultivators. They are not one of the "inner" sects of Taoism, because these Taoists do not necessarily practice meditation, alchemy, chi kung and they do not necessarily read the Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tsu, etc.

Many of the famous spiritual techniques attributed to the ninja, such the kuji-in and kuji-kiri, were originally Shugendo techniques used by the Yamabushi (mountain ascetics) for achieving a state of Buddhahood in this life and for manifesting supernatural powers. Some common Shugenja abilities included exorcism, energy healing, advanced qigong done in trance, walking on swords/flaming coals, standing under freezing cold waterfalls for hours/days, seeing spirits with their bare eyes, and living without food for unnaturally long periods of time. It is reasonable to suspect that a group of historical assassins could have adopted some of these techniques from the mountain hermits in order to complement their martial arts. It would be nice if it were still possible to study under a true, lineage holding Shugenja, but they were violently purged throughout the country by the Meiji government shortly after they took power. Shugendo blended folk belief, Daoism and Buddhism too thoroughly for the new State Shinto that the government wanted to invent. There are people who call themselves Shugenja in Japan today, but over fifty years passed in Japan before practice became legal again and most of the texts were burnt. The new groups that call themselves Shugenja had to rebuild mostly from legend rather than direct transmission. Just for a historical note: recent scholarship has found that the words that go along with the kuji-in originated from a spell in the Taoist text, the Bao Pu Tsu. Ge Hung said that the spell summoned forth an army of spiritual guardians to protect a person when training alone in the woods from fox spirits and the like. I am perfectly willing to deny any of the modern lineages claims, but I think that there is enough evidence to show that a spiritual group of assassins existed in Japan's past. Or at least that a group of assassins would have happily to borrowed some of the mystical reputation that the Yamabushi had by faking mudras and the like in order to intimidate their enemies.

Correct me if I am wrong, but exorcist_1699 seems to have a very different type of project in mind. You seem to be just collecting a bunch of random Chinese words as they relate to Daoism, while exorcist_1699 seems to want to take original Daoist texts that have not come out in the West and provide glossaries for them so that each reader can translate it himself (which is quite easy due to the simplicity of Classical Chinese grammar). This, I have found, is by far the best way to personally approach these texts, though it takes a little longer to read. I have read and translated the Dao De Jing and the inner chapters of Zhuangzi this way, and it is far more fulfilling then simply reading one of the many (not so good) translations out there, which typically do not account for anything other than the raw philosophical interpretations. If this is correct and your goal is to work on providing these texts in Chinese characters concordant with pinyin and glossaries, then this is an amazing project! If there is any way that I can help, let me know and I would be happy to lend my limited Chinese language skill and typing fingers to the project.

Keep it up! This initial tingling is caused by the chi moving through long blocked up meridians. If you continue this path and use your awareness to manipulate where the tingling occurs, the tingling will eventually give way to a warm, comfortable flow-like sensation of the chi circulating throughout your body. During your meditation you can use these body-centered energy sensations to give your mind something to focus on, which will greatly help you to quiet your mind. In fact, if you do the practice regularly, eventually the chi sensations will become ever present, which will help you quiet your mind throughout your day (when you are not setting aside time to specifically meditate). Also, if you do a form of mediation on the dan tien (hara) such as the Taoist's Sitting and Forgetting or Zen's zazen, this training will help you feel the energy move in and out of that part of the body as you breath.