Astral Monk

Hi A.A., When speaking of yang shen, are we referring to an energy body that is created to exist outside of our current physical body? When I first had a peek at Huimingching, I thought 'hey this is all about astral projection'. Then I thought it was odd the idea that one could make any number of immortal fetus and release them into world. Ok, so something else going on maybe. I'm thinking that a yin shen would be like what is called an astral body or dream body, hence insubstantial and ghost-like. Whereas a yang shen is the opposite--being able to manifest in a solid seemingly physical capacity to be seen and interacted with by physical beings in the world. The question is whether consciousness 'goes into' a yang shen. Is it a new vehicle that a person can move into leaving the origin body behind? Astral body seems like an extension of consciousness, a way to reach outside our scope, but still connected (and these apparently fade after original body dies). Is yang shen like this or is it actually a whole new being created? A mother gives birth to a baby; the baby is like her but is not her. How shall we understand this? thanks, and thanks for taking the time to expound on Wuliupai teachings. 8)

Not to derail the thread, but awaken, when you say 'middle mai' are you talking about chong mai, the extrodinary vessel connecting huiyin and bahui? thnx, 8)

Hi all, Some time back I read some passage somewhere (I know LOL) where a dhāraṇī was given, and one of the key results of reciting this mantra was that the person would be able to understand the speech of animals. Now I can't for the life of me find this, even though I know its in one of my books. I think it was given by demons or nagas, and not recited by a Boddhisattva or Buddha. I thought it was connected to Medicine Buddha, but it could be from Lotus Sutra. Ring any bells for anyone? I'm not seeing much on google that is helping. thanks, 8)

Interesting. Which Buddhist sutra suggests 'initiation' is required for mantra recitation? Mantras always seem to be presented as divine gifts to assist people. I've never seen a requirement for their use other than mindful recitation. What does 'initiation' mean here anyway..? 8)

quick comment. loss of 'jobs' to automation is an opportunity to bring social change to the forefront of evryones minds. it could be a catalyst. what if people were freed from time consuming mundane tasks and able to focus on themselves and their local communities? if robots can be programmed to do everything, what task do I have left but to live life? The implications for social change are far-reaching. People need to realize they can live self-directed lives, rather than the rats-in-a-maze system. If education, innovation, creativity are driven by pure interest (and need, as usual), and not the false promise of the market (glorious riches ne'r ending), we could see the real dawn of a golden era of humanity. We could force ourselves into massive sociopolitical transformation through technology. It will be hard for the old guard to keep the system going because in the light of fully distributed power and water management, in-home 3-d printing, and other incredible developments, it wont be long before ppl--real regular ppl--are asking 'why we jumpin thru dees hoops??' The old way will stop. What we can do is start to unplug. Unplug from banks. Unplug from convenience in favour of sustainability. Unplug from State power, gas. Slowly, bit by bit. Until we collectively find the best route and the State has been pushed back into the position of a true servant of the people. Its difficult to imagine a new way. But if we dont need to work, what do we need money for? Why is this system in place? Why cant we just live life without money? Robots do work and receive no value. Money was the carrot to keep the slaves at their labours. Basic wage is another carrot to keep em runnin on the same old treadmill. We gotta unplug from the mindset that we need money to do things or that money moves the world. This is false. But the way forwrd is not so clear. 8)

Basic wage is not the answer. Supporting any model of economy that requires currency is not the answer. Any proposal to distribute 'wealth' is a vain sttemp to steer the sinking ship. People dont need wages. They need water, air, shelter, clothing, and nutrition. And space. We need liberty of movement. The revolution will not be is fair wages, but in ppl dropping out of the system entirely. I saw an ad recently on how to live like a rich person by going to some poor country, inevitably tropical. Ppl dont see the immorality in this, the injustice and basic violation of the spirit of human rights. Why should a human being's wage-value vary for doing the same work depending on their physical location on the earth? Isnt this absurd? It is absurd. And it paves a humanitarian path to totalitarianism--a single universal government. All current models of 'economy' require poverty. Poverty is desirable, necessary. Without economic class distinctions there IS no economy. Without peasants, how can there be kings? A basic wage only increases inflation and further divides ultra-rich from the bottom dwellers. 8)

Interesting. Ive read this a few times recently. How many levels of coloured elixir are there...?

Teachers are important, but just as important is for student to go beyond teachers. If they dont, what is value of teaching? 8)

People get deceived easily. Even rational, logical, objective people. So finding a 'true teacher' is just a matter of luck? of fortune or destiny? Because as was said many ppl who felt they had excellent teachers died and lived normal lives. Ppl can only 'teach' what they know and have achieved. Now, since it is not allowed to share comments on peoples personal results in neidan, how can anyone know what their 'teacher' has achieved? And if a teacher has achievement, how do they demonstrate this to leave no doubt? Because immortality cant be 'demonstrated' except by out living everyone (self demonstration). Would-be teachers need to lead with RESULTS, otherwise we have NO WAY to judge them or the veracity of their claim to be teachers in the first place. This is why ppl ask the age and appearance of neidan folks--if the claims of neidan are true, SHOW US; if no one to show us, then how did they fail or why not yet succeed? Or, neidan is false in its claims. 8)

Also, getting governent involved in regulating social media gets everyone used to the idea that free speech is not free, we cant communicate with whom we want on what topics we want, because Big Bro is goin to censor us. This is the most worrying trend for me. Whether 'news' is verifiably factual (rarely) or totally made-up we need to be FREE to speak of it without oversight or interference!! 8)

More fake news: Russia's ambassador to Turkey shot dead mid-speech in Ankara https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1IKHUzP6iM Looks like another bit of theatre for us rubes >(

You are doing this all the time every second of your existence without any further effort. Each breath bring in and releases energy. Every bite of food is adding energy to your body from nature. The wind the rain the sun the moon...you cannot possibly HELP but get qi into your body all the time. The question 'how do I gather qi' is more about 'how do I get myself to feel a strong flow of qi?' Qi is always there, everywhere, all the time. You dont need to tune in to something specific to 'get at it'. Getting strong feeling of qi isnt even the best goal to have. When energies are balanced in the body one doesn't feel vibrant sparkling etheric energy 24/7--one feels like strong and healthy and awake. Often when we feel qi strongly its because there is a blockage causing friction (so to speak) and thus a build up of excess. We use heat to indicate qi flow initially, but heat is a damaging thing, and indicates more of a forced movement. Getting strong qi flow all the time doesn't mean you will feel super hot 24/7. In qigong especially, motion is not as important as intention. Intention is a difficult thing when applied to moving energy. Because we think we are moving something that is separate from the rest of our body. There is a disconnect. Just plain old moving activates qi, no need for special tricks. But special exercises try to move qi in different ways, with various goals to get various effects. Unfortunately, there is only a small benefit from this type of post-heaven work. That is, small in terms of lasting impact. Qigong practice might have a huge impact and benefit on your life as you see it. But that's not about the quality of energy per se. Post-heaven work (qigong) doesnt have any mechanism to 'save' or 'store' the energy you create through movements and intentions (and living and breathing and walking and circulating etc). You gotta keep doing the exercises daily for more and more time as you age just to try to stay even. When a qigong master says they practice 3-4 hrs daily, you better believe it. But they HAVE TO, otherwise there's very little benefits. But is that practical? Remember, qi is already moving in and through you. Settling down and focussing on breathing--like Spring Forest Qigong's 'energy breathing' where you just focus on allowing qi to come in through every pore of the body--will help you relax and tune in to your natural rhythm. Dont get hung up on thinking that breathing in qi is anything different or distinct from normal everyday breathing! Qi is like a river of water. Who looks at the river and asks, how can we get this water to move? It's already moving, nothing to do! If you want to stop it or redirect it you have to adjust the materials around the river--the rocks, the soil, etc. And even then you only direct the flow, dont stop it, just hold it for a moment in time. 8)

Yes, a great timing. I was just reflecting on these notions lately. For me, longevity is the main result we should look for--with more time comes more opportunities and maturity, and thus with longevity any of those other goals could eventually be reached. But not gaining longevity and devoting all time to goals that dont promote it or even decrease it, well, you just run of of timespace. I mean who dont want unite with Dao/light etc? But lol, you will get there eventually anyway, so no need to cultivate such thing. 8)

I would say 'news' is about things that are happening or have happened, not projections of possible futures. Those headlines werent news, just guesses that turned out wrong. So, not fake, but mistake. Fake news is a false report. Gulf of Tonkin incident, started American involement in Vietnam. Many ppl saw the whole Sandy Hook shooting as fake news--staged and falsified to create fear, anger, and so on. 8)

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Not shocking--one stop shopping. Ppl add pages of news sites etc to their FB feeds to keep abreast of what the headlines are etc. Hence 'if its not on FB its not on'. If I'm following Fox or BBC or whatever, they have FB pages and clickbait, which are not much different than external site. FB shouldnt be in the business of altering or massaging or tuning the feed. But they are. Because when you give ppl power, esp over information, they JUST. CANT. HELP. THEMSELVES. SO rather than being an open platform that allows ppl to connect and express themselves, we have a regulared platform that is specifically tuned according to marketing principles and algorythms to give us a false picture..of ourselves and our 'friends'. 8)

This is important. Key in fact. Bullets arent cheap. They have crates and crates. Who sold them? 'Rebels' dont have gun and ammo factories, generally... 8)

Yeah, Mossadatron. 8)

Actually lot of cat around here. Mew mew mew they say repeatedly, then jump on your shelf and knockoff your copy of Huimingching! 8)

Cats know what u saying. They just dont care. 8)

obvsly it were DEWs that done it. Whatever the case, planes were the big poece of theatre to make it a show and give reason to add pointless and useless 'security' at airports so regular ppl can always feel like criminals daily! 8)

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actually opendao is a good instructor. Forums vs IRL can be very very different. What comes off as hot opinionated actions here are tempered and well-measured offline. The media itself riles us up. Theres an endless stream of ppl on here that seem like jerks who I'm sure are great folk IRL. But promoting ones beliefs here is par for the course. Look at awaken--is she here to really open discussion or just critique others in order to highlight what she believes is her correct understanding and practice? And how challenge asnwered? silence. anyway, lets hear about munky style..I always like 5 animal sports 8)