Daeluin

I like to think of grounding as a borrowing the receptivity of earth and brining it into myself, from the bottom up - becoming totally empty of thoughts all the way up to my head. And then this grounding, this receptivity, becomes receptive to the higher, more heavenly energies, which I then embrace and fill with. But I don't focus on reaching out of the top of my head... in fact to feel full of this energy in my head I often focus on brining it down to fill up from my feet up. Funny how when I let my self sink focus to my feet, that is when I feel most aware of my higher centers. So I like to pull the ground up and pull heaven down, and let them integrate within.

Was just reading in Seven Taoist Masters (tl Eva Wong): A few pages earlier: Dissolve ego, connect to one's heart, and be connected to the heart of Tao. Act from intuition and follow your own unique way as it leads, free from compulsively controlling your momentum. With a clear heart we can trust and accept where our way leads as being true regardless of how it might appear, simply by the feeling in our heart. Lessons will appear and by maintaining sincerity to our connection to the heart we will evolve and grow in the most "efficient" way for us. As we get better at discerning what is "ego" and what is coming from our true heart, we will know which choices to make. The sage holds three treasures. Guard and keep them! Compassion; Frugality; Refusal to be ahead of anything else under heaven.

There is also the concept of the upper soul and the lower soul, the hun and po, in the five elemental forces associated with wood and metal. It is easy for the lower soul to dominate, getting fixated on experiencing, judging, controlling, all at the expense of balance and integration with the upper soul, which is more etherial, spiritual. If we don't purify and cultivate our physical bodies, it is difficult to draw in and more fully embody our higher soul, let alone fuse them together. When our physical forms die the memories of the brain dissolve, and yet the patterns we created with our energy remain. As far as memories go, perhaps our past actions are imprinted on time in a way that can be reviewed, should one be able to tune into this - as with the akashic records, or in the methods described in the biography of Wang Liping. Now with this pattern of our soul, what happens? Without a body, in an etherial form, one may not be able to influence matter or control things, even the patterns of one's own energetic makeup. As best I am able to follow the principle, it seems if one has not fused one's upper and lower souls, then they separate upon death. To borrow from Kongming's quotes: Here the lower soul is heavier and has attachment to form. When the higher and lower souls separate, not being integrated as one, the lower soul lingers as a ghost, and these energies waft around, drawn as though by gravity to patterns that are similar to themselves. At least this is the essence of the principle, as far as I can tell. While the lower soul is slave to the gravity of the patterns it has been shaped in, the higher soul perhaps has some clarity, perhaps waits for the right circumstances in which to reform the bond with it's lower counterpart. These right circumstances are simply those which are able to match the pattern that had been created - similar gravities in the planetary motions, similar patterns in the parents who are uniting sexually to create an opportunity to re-integrate in the physical. Perhaps it is possible for the bond to be severed completely, and the path of transmigration of the lower soul does not return as a human, but as something without as strong a heaven-earth connection. I don't know, nor do I know what the implication would be upon the higher soul it had been linked to. The principle would appear to limit the freedom of the higher soul, due to its link to the lower soul acting as a leash, or perhaps the lack of lower soul integration meaning an inability to shape intention - perhaps the integration itself is what provides a center for the intention to reside within. And remember both are limited in terms of autonomy and control over their environment, being trapped by the capacities of the shape they were released in. So then the idea comes the if the two are able to integrate and fuse together, then upon death of the form, there is freedom and autonomy, to some extent - remember, how would the spiritual be able to influence the physical without either influencing the spirit of something embodied in the physical, or by re-integrating back into the physical itself? Following principle, we might say the more completely one is able to transform and integrate while within the physical body, the more freedom one might enjoy upon transcending. Should one fully transcend, leaving nothing behind of the physical shell, perhaps one is able to transcend beyond both earth and heaven, returning to the tao, or before then perhaps having full access to both realms. I don't know. Principle is a useful tool, as it is able to withstand adaptation rather well, but is not without uncertainty. Tis quite beautiful and mysterious, how the 10,000 interact. But yes, I have heard both accounts of people communicating with earthly ghosts and with spirits in the heavenly realm. Tis a matter of refinement. Personality is largely ego - the inclinations to do this or that because of attachments - and to fuse the hun and po a great deal of ego dissolving is necessary. So to transcend beyond, the personality is dissolved. If one does not transcend, perhaps the personality is preserved, in a manner of speaking, in the patterns one has cultivated. Yet upon re-integration into form the personality is unlikely to re-emerge in the same way it did before. Perhaps it'd be better to think of it as the karma which is preserved. As we develop and create our personality, we shape the world around us, and, through time, weave all these intricate knots, which also separate ourselves from oneness - to be one, what need have we of that which distinguishes ourselves from others?

I've heard renshen is a good combination for balancing out the effects. Too it is important to understand the five phase principles in operation. There is a fire like quality, and we know that fire burns where there is fuel. Different people distribute their energy in different patterns, and to different areas and systems. When this energy, this fuel, is ignited, it will burn in those places and cause different experiences. Just like wood burning where it has been placed in a fire pit is different than wood burning in a forest where it is even distributed. So if people habitually set their intention on their fears, when they get high they are more likely to become paranoid. If one is consumed by thought in a normal state, perhaps they will be consumed by thoughts and insights when high. If one is empty, clear, and without desire perhaps one simply merges with their environment. This might help simplify understanding of why people who get high tend to have very different experiences from each other. If people bring the energy low and concentrate it within the lower dan tien, perhaps when it ignites it is less likely to fly off in the same way, depending on how well one is able to regulate the amount of the fire. It might be interesting as a temporary spiritual aid, to help break one free of a fixed perception of the world, but one should not come to rely too strongly on any external substance. Too, when something is burning, it is not always simple to make sudden changes in behavior or control one's focus, but the more one's energy fuel is refined the more possible this is. Ultimately one should learn to accomplish these transformations on one's own, if one desires to experiment with them. And as with any transformations, one should be mindful of how extreme one's momentum is changing, as this greatly influences one's foundation. When one has a history of extreme momentum changes, it is difficult to cultivate peace without being able to adapt and flow as one's momentum comes to points where it wants to make larger changes that one would rather not make.

I used to do 7 day "fasts." I would drink diluted juices and herbal teas. Some might not consider this really fasting. I quite enjoyed how it made me feel. By the end of the 2nd day and throughout the 3rd day I would be ravenous and in pain as my body presumably transitioned to ketosis. But after that I felt like I was on a cloud, and by the 7th day I didn't really want to start eating again. However I would get dizzy spells and too much physical exertion was trouble. That was all before I started any sort of qigong. I've been musing on what it might be like to get back into fasting mixed with qigong. Perhaps with the right type of energy work and intent, the physical body can be moved more with the mind/energy, without as much cost to one's physical resources. It is interesting how the bigu diet seems similar to a ketogenic diet at first, but at higher levels may only consist of pine needles, and then only qi.

This was somewhat of a breakthrough for me. When we are beginning something new, we take our potential (water), expand and grow it (wood) into something that culminates (fire). This culmination can be a creative transformation of expression, like a wildfire, or simply a point marking when the expansion turns to a contraction. When we are beginning something new, this turning point marks the outer extreme, and from an inner and outer extreme we create the center, earth. But when we are not beginning something new, earth, the center, has already been created, and we are in a constant dance with the center. Each "new" project we begin creates it's own boundaries and center even as it works within the boundaries of the pre-existing center(s). So in neidan, where we are trying to bring things back into harmony with the pre-existing center(s), perhaps this is related to the advice of never daring to be ahead of anything else. When we put ourselves ahead, or attribute any value to our progress, it is a form of "looking back," and a turning point that creates new parameters and can inhibit our progress of harmonization within the whole. Without giving ourselves labels or attributing any value to our progress, always humble and acting as though we are nothing, nothing arises to contend with our progress.

I saw a mind so unwavering and focused on innocently experiencing the present that the leopard was drawn to it as a role model.

Yes, wuxing and bagua are different layers. At this early level we are dealing with primal elemental forces, and each have their own operation. However, each new layer contains the previous layers. Exactly how is just a bit mysterious. We can easily identify polarity, yin and yang in everything, and the change, or qi, between yin and yang. I like to think of these three, yin, yang, and qi, as operating before spacial dimension exists. As we add a new layer, be it the duality of the three, or the crystalization of three into four, perhaps the spacial dimension unfolds (ever study a caltrop?). Even as this spaciality exists, too it finds a center, the fifth, pointing back to the origin that is everywhere and nowhere - that place before this spacial dimension unfolded. Then we can study the yin-yang symbol to understand how at first yin and yang revolve around a common center, (lesser/greater yin/yang + center = 5), but then the two dots of bright yang and terminal yin appear, as greater yang and lesser yin begin to revolve around each other instead of the common center, creating the terminal yin within greater yang - and the same for greater yin and lesser yang revolving around bright yang - this isn't quite how it works, but is the gist of it, I think. With the five there is space, yet still no distinction between self and other, inside and outside. The transformations are spontaneous without objection. But as the center is lost, the 5 crystalize into the six, brining us material reality - the distinction between self and other, inside and outside. And yet the six also come from the duality of the original 3, and so I don't know if we can really say that heaven came before earth, though heaven is contained within earth. And here too we have zhuangzi's six directions of energy. Ever study a jack? Up down left right front back - an interesting structure centered around three poles, similar to a cube with six faces. Ni Hua Ching goes into some of this line of thought in The Book of Changes and the Unchanging Truth, but a lot of it I've had to put together myself. I don't know if others teach of it this way (so please take this with a grain of salt), but this is what resonates with me. Still musing out seven, eight, nine - after that it all repeats.

K'an means cavity. Li means separation. These names describe their nature, as Liu Yiming describes in Cultivating the Tao (tl: Pregadio): Here Liu Yiming says Kan is Water and Li is Fire, but doesn't really explain. The daodejing speaks of water in terms of how soft and yielding it is, always flowing to the lowest places, yet always able to overcome the strong. So too, in our bodies, this "true yang" sinks like water into the cavity of Kan, and always seeks to flow where opportunity presents a lower place. When the false yin that surrounds the true yang in Kan is still and quiet, this true yang has a solid foundation and becomes stable, like when water reaches the lowest point and then begins to pool, filling up from that lowest point. Wisdom grows as this true yang naturally builds without being spent. But the false yin surrounding it often draws or tempts it into other ventures, as a pool that is growing, only to spill over the edge and run into a new path, finding a new low point. Thus water is also known as danger, the safe abode in the center always being tempted to leak out and lose its home. Fire on the other hand, is associated with clarity and illumination when the true yin at the center is still. This true yin wishes to be receptive and accommodating, and so is constantly receiving the energy of the false yang that surrounds it, and so the heart-mind is often led into feeling emotions and thoughts. And thus fire becomes loses its grace, becoming impatient, easily scattered and unpredictable, so wild and caught up in navigating the many thoughts and emotions that it loses its original receptive, patient, clear quality and becomes selfish. Fire is the mother of Earth, Earth easily shapes and controls water, Water easily shapes and controls fire. And here perhaps we can understand how Earth is both the child of Fire and the ever-present center. Often when visiting a new place we lack a bearing, a proper sense of the center, until we've at least traveled to the opposite side of it, and then the way back to our starting point gives us enough perspective to relate to the whole and its center. Thus fire is ever the demarcation of how far we have come from our origin, and thereby orients us to the center. When we are able to recognize the center as our origin, then we have truly harmonized the five phases. Too, perhaps this is the importance of studying principle - to truly return, we must truly understand where we are. Thus those who cultivate the Xing (spiritual-nature) but neglect the Ming (energy-form) are neglecting part of the whole. I highly recommend acquiring this book if one is seriously researching the principles of neidan.

I've become comfortable working with wood = wind and thunder, metal = heaven and lake. Wind, as I perceive it, receptively communicates change between polarity, making no action of its own, simply responding. It can be gentle or fierce depending upon the extremes present in the environment. While thunder is active and electric, booming suddenly for all to hear. So in this context it is easy to view thunder as yang wood, wind as yin wood. Though Taomeow views wind as metal. The trigram of heaven is often noted as metal. Perhaps there is association here with the golden elixer - a substance said to be the merging of the fluid in the lungs with the golden light. The lungs are metal, and this fusion creates a metal that is soft and pliable, able to contain the light without leaking it. This is said to be a substance of the utmost yang, and the trigram of heaven is all yang lines. Perhaps this perspective can shed light on why metal is associated with heaven. Lake is akin to a swamp, to joy, to transformation, and as family members is likened to the youngest daughter. Metal is the phase in which there is a settling after the culmination of creative expression, the return following upon expansion. But often after creative expression we get lost in the sensation of experience. We are so excited by the events of our day that we don't want to go to bed at night, we are so attached to relating with others that we wish to stay up all night, never letting go. The hexagram of lake over lake represents a dynamic of delayed gratification vs instant gratification. After creative expression, we can be rewarded with transformation. After work we get a paycheck. When we perform we can get validation and praise. But there is a choice here - we can choose to spend the paycheck all at once or save it up. We can chose to let the praise and gratification make us feel entitled and adorn ourself with followers and bask in the glory of the limelight, or we can just accept the praise graciously and gracefully. Saving up is good if we want to buy something of a greater magnitude, and acting gracefully is good for cultivating a reputation that carries one higher. So when we delay gratification our potential for transformation is greater. Here is where many get lost - by choosing to follow joy and instant gratification, rather than letting things settle, mature. When we allow things to settle, the top yin line in the lake trigram transforms to yang, becoming the heaven trigram. And perhaps here too we can more deeply understand the connection between heaven and metal. After expression, when we allow the energy to settle, it becomes full again, like the heaven trigram. Often the youngest daughter and the father have an interesting relationship. The youngest daughter can be tenacious and inquisitive, but has trouble doing wrong in the eyes of the father. She, being the youngest, may have fewer expectations or entitlements, as everyone else is her senior, but this position allows much growth through learning from the experience of others. The trigram of lake under heaven is called treading, as in treading on the tail of a tiger, and here the youngest daughter can tread on the tail of the tiger without getting bitten, rather, there is an opportunity to develop experience and grow strong. In western terms we can say that conscious and subconscious need to be merged to reconnect to the heart of things. What we think we know and what we intuit need to work as one without interfering with each other. In daoist terms we originally have heaven over earth, but their middle lines exchange (like the two dots in the taijitu), and rather than revolving around a common center, they begin to revolve around these two dots. When the middle lines of heaven and earth exchange, we then have fire and water. The middle line of heaven is referred to as the true yang; the middle line in earth is referred to as the true yin. Well, the true yin is now space between the original, remaining two yang lines in heaven, now fire, and this space allows conscious thoughts to form from as the energy of the yang lines are invited to express within this space of true yang. Meanwhile the true yang from heaven is now in the center of the two yin lines of earth, now water, and these to yin lines invite us to express this primordial yang; when the water is still and clear this true yang can express as wisdom, when the water is momentous or turib there is outward ambition and desire. So even as metal settles (lake and heaven) into water, there is metal contained within water - the true yang from the heaven trigram that has been trapped inside of the trigram of water. The work of neidan is to settle the heat of consciousness, fire, down into the lower dantien to dissolve and carry up the true yang, the metal in water back up to transform fire into heaven, so that conscious and subconscious are one, again revolving around a common center. Naturally it is more complex than this, but still natural. What has separated is reunited, and there are several cycles following this principle. Too, we have two earths in the trigrams. Mountain and Earth. I like viewing earth as the stillness of fire, mountain as the stillness of water. Just like the five phases can be taken as a cycle of five, or a cycle of four with a common center, the 8 trigrams can have many different arrangements. We have to remember that the daoist cosmology factors in all posibilities; each new number of interacting forces both integrates all the preceding dimensions and dynamics, but too adds its own dimmension, which might not be as linear as it seems given the multidimensional underlayers. So when the trigrams are arranged in different ways we can interpret them in different ways. Studying the he tu diagram and the luo shu diagram (magic square) and their associated elements can be very interesting. Hope this helps!

I think at the core freedom means free from cost, free to change without restriction. So something that is free from monetary cost is free to change hands without monetary limits, but still may have other, non-monetary costs. In open source software (linux, etc), a distinction is often made between "free as in speech" and "free as in beer", in attempt to point out the difference between software you are free to download and install and software you are free to change. Though even freedom of speech these days isn't without associated costs. Change will always create ripples, until we refine to a very high level.

For emphasis on neidan, Liu Yiming's Cultivating the Tao tl Fabrizio Pregadio has a chapter on the five agents, as does Eva Wong's tl of Zhong Lu Chuan Dao Ji in The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality ; The Teachings of Immortals Chung and Lu. I love how circular these books are, especially Zhong Lu Chuan Dao Ji - this circularity flows with the five phases throughout its entirity, requiring an understanding of these phase changes to fully comprehend the book in some ways. What really helped me to understand the five phases was Liu Yiming's association of these phases with Virtues and portrayal of the relationship between these virtues. Wisdom (water) must rest upon (be controlled by) a solid foundation (earth), etc. Then in Cultivating the Tao, he describes the principle by which the five phases become more "post-celestial" or "pre-celestial." When one takes what one's environment has created and controls these resources for one's one purposes, this moves in a post-celestial direction. When one rests upon the guidance of one's environment as-is, and proceeds to create harmony within the constraints of this environment, this moves the energy in a pre-celestial direction. A discussion of how this relates to destiny can be found here. Discussions on the five phases are easy to find, but they are slippery to fully comprehend. Does earth come after fire, or is it the center? or both? We have to remember how this relates to the unfolding of daoist cosmology, and learn to see the five phases in the four forces as well. The lesser yang, greater yang, lesser yin, and greater yin of the taijitu also work in relation to the five phases. Growth (wood), Culmination (fire), Settling (metal), Stillness (water), connected by a common center (earth). In Chinese Astrology can be found an almanac like exploration of the five elements - the ten celestial stems and the twelve earthly branches. This is a study of how the heavenly energies interact with the earthly energies, or perhaps the interaction of the spiritual with the material. The ten celestial stems are simply the duality of each phase - yin water and yang water, etc. The twelve earthly branches are simply how these ten celestial stems expressed after being stored up within material forces. There is an extra pair of yin and yang earth, giving 4 earths - placed between each of the other elements. These energies flow cyclically through time, and are most commonly observed as cycles through the year, month, day, and hour. Each time frame expresses these energies in subtly different ways. The monthly energies are the strongest, as can be seen in our seasonal changes. Centered around the Winter Solstice we have yang and yin Water, followed by yin Earth, yang and yin wood, yang earth, yang and yin fire, yin earth, yang and yin metal, yang earth. Also known as Boar, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog. Study of this arrangement helps us understand how earth works better - yang earth dragon is positioned between yin wood rabbit and yang fire snake. Dragon is an entrepreneurial energy. It places the wood where the fire will burn. Each of the earth phases perform a integrative role, helping the other energies to merge as one. Earth is the most important phase, as it represents the center. In taiji practice, standing still with feet together and arms by the side, relaxed, is often called the wuji stance, where nothing is formed. Every movement is supposed to come from wuji, and return to wuji. Well now, remember - the 12 earthly branches (material realm) are simply boxes expressing particular energies of the 10 celestial stems (spiritual realm) at particular times. And the 10 celestial stems exist, perhaps, beyond and before the material realm, yet even they have an origin to return to - for this we look to the yang earth and yin earth stems, which are named Wu and Ji. When we are able to return our energies to wu and ji, we are able to cultivate the primordial. Zhong Lu Chuan Dao Ji explores how this operation works with neidan throughout its contents. For learning about the five phases, I recommend identifying the phases within anything that changes. The phases are like yin and yang - they cannot be trapped or absolute - but it may be easier to identify the settling from the expression, the slowing from the quickening. Not every growth must express before slowing, not every expression must slow down before expanding. It is a complex world out there. The I Ching can help us understand these changing patterns, but it is enough to accept they are variable. The more we are able to identify external changes as related to the five phases, the better we can grasp the internal changes.

As I become more sensitive I find myself triggered more by subtle things that don't add up in conversation. Phrases, sayings, word choices I've been accustomed to and used myself many times, but now have reached a depth where any gaps between these constructs are easily felt, even when not understood. This poses a challenge, as I have changed, not my environment. Thus it is my challenge to refine my sensitivity to adapt to my new environmental perception. Often I find myself triggered when people say "do you mind helping me with x." The question seems straight forward - do you mind, or don't you mind? However the expectation of the asker, which can be heard through their vocal nuance, only really gives "no" as an easy answer. The asker usually isn't really checking in to see if you are interested, to see if you really mind or not - they're asking you to help, and answering "no" isn't really "no I don't mind" but "yes I'll help you." And if you do say "yes I mind" then that is received as a unplanned roadblock, and instead of just expressing a feeling, one creates an obstacle to the other's expectation. This odd little trap can use other phrases too - often when people ask "can you help me with this" they are expecting you to either help them or not - they aren't asking if you can, they're asking if you will. Through studying Non Violent Communication it has been stressed how important it is to first genuinely check in with someone to see how they feel about something before expecting them to make plans to do something. For many this extra step seems unnecessary - and it may indeed be unnecessary for people who are in sync with their communication. But when there is awkwardness or gaps in connectivity, it is best to take care with presenting expectations or assumptions. People will generally go along with it, but over time little things add up. I've started asking my friends to ask "will I" instead of "can I", since that is usually what they mean, and this way I don't stumble over the gap in their expectations. This can be asked of those you are close with, but those you aren't close with probably won't understand. So in the end it is really a matter of building a bridge between someone's words and their intent. Also: As ever, what is written can be rewritten, re-interpreted, even unwritten. What rises will fall. Rising, falling, rising again.

Happy Summer Solstice. From the winter solstice until now, the yang energy has been waxing - building up, storing up. Yang is a sort of firmness. A strength that is placed in stillness. When strength gets used, the operation changes from waxing to waning - what we have and use gets used up. Every day the earth spins in a complete circle, and we have darkness and light, day and night, by which to feel this change. Every month the moon revolves around the earth, and we feel this in the gravitational pulls of the moon, in the moon's alignment to the sun, and in the moon's relationship to it's nodal axis. Every year the earth revolves around the sun, and we feel this through the seasonal changes and so much more. So: When the sun is behind us at midnight, this is as far from us the sun can get in the daily cycle, and from this point until noon the energy waxes. When the moon aligns with the sun from our perspective on earth, no light is reflected back to us. Through-out the following two weeks the reflected light will appear and grow to fullness at the 'full moon.' We're all accustomed to full moon tales of wild energy and chaotic unfoldings. It's pretty simple to understand. Same as getting a paycheck and spending it all at once. Energy gets built up and then the operation changes - we've become used to saving up, but something changed that operation on us. We're no longer saving up - we've been given our chest of gold and now we have to defend it or spend it. But often we don't even realize something has changed, and we go off drinking on a whim and wake up the next morning broke and carrying some vague recollection of a wild party beneath a mean hangover. Or maybe we've been dealing with some challenging struggles for a week or two and just snap, unable to control ourselves. See, the changes of momentum in the earth, moon, and solar system are cyclical. But with our daylight savings and gregorian calendars we aren't very in tune with these changes, and tend to embody them as linear motion. This linear motion changes, then we struggle to adapt after the fact, settling into a new linear pattern until it changes again. One of the most profound lessons I've learned from daoist thought is how to adapt to cycles. How to become oriented with circular flows. How to let go of linear attachments and open to continuous change while constantly reorienting to the center. The lunar and solar cycles are very connected, but not in a way that is clearly defined. They say that when the new moon which begins the new chinese lunar year comes after the date of the solar year (lichun), that the moon is blind to the year, akin to showing up late to a meeting, needing to play catch up and not exactly certain what was missed. On the other hand, if the lunar year new moon comes before lichun, the moon is early to the meeting, and more in tune, more in synch with the energy of the year. Both are important. Sometimes we need to see, sometimes we need to hear. So today. The summer solstice. After today the yin energy will return and the yang energy will wane. The yang will be invited into motion, invited into getting shaped and spent. The energy we have cultivated this past year and the connections and foundation we've been building will be put to the test. As we enter into this yin period, our past patterns of how we spend our energy will come into play and we will discover just how well those patterns will make use of what we've been storing up. It's a subtle change that unfolds slow enough to miss at first. Currently the moon is waxing, even as the sun begins to slowly wane. We'll likely still feel this waxing of the moon more strongly, but then as soon as the moon begins to wane we might feel a more distinct change in direction, or it might not really settle into place until the next waning of the moon, giving the moon a full cycle to really catch up. This this post is just a nudge to be aware of this change. If you've been moving in a linear direction now's the time to let the transformation unfold, let the fire burn, let the return begin. Or, if the energy isn't ready to be spent yet, now is the time to preserve it, set it in the vault and switch over to making refinements rather than adding new features. Just be wary of pushing on as before, in that linear direction, or the rug might get swept out from under you. We don't want to spend everything. We want to save some of this heat and energy for the coming winter. Blessings!

Happy full moon. All downhill after here.

The "wuxing" can be seen as a circle, spiral, or vibration. The stages of development used to describe the changes within a circle, spiral, or vibration ARE the five phases: A beginning - an expansion, growth. An expression - growth changes. Settling - the cresting of expression invites a settling, or experiencing phase. The return - the lowest point between the settling and next phase of growth. And all of these cycle-ings are relative to a common center. This center is relative to both the current dynamic of doing and non-doing, and to the original center at times referred to as the tao, or source. We all know how easy it can be to go, go, go, without rest: the return is only as deep and still as we allow it to settle. So the wuxing can help us to understand how balanced we are in relation to our many different "centers," all the way back through the mysterious gate. Using the wuxing to study cosmology is deeply poignant.

Not exactly dreams, but I was reminded of this. I think guides/entities will use whatever methods available to communicate with us. Some for good, others perhaps not so much. The rest of that thread has some interesting exploration into this.

wormwood and let's not forget mugwort, aka moxa.

All you need is right in front of you. No need to look to up your game - you're already too good at adding noise. How good are you at creating pure qi in stillness? How good are you at relaxing and being content just with how things are, happily eating time as it passes?

You get what you ask for. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. When we express from non-duality in any way, we make ourselves into targets eager to be mated to our dualistic counterparts. if we stand up we get seen - what's so unusual about that? The dao doesn't stand up much, therefore it is easy to miss.

My sense is that cannabis triggers an ignition of energy into a fire-like substance. This is related to ling. Trouble is, when this ignition is triggered chemically, it easily becomes an extreme that is controlled by the amount of chemical in one's system. Further, if the lower-vibration energies in the body have not been cultivated so that the ignited spiritual energies can receive and fuse with them, then these ignited spiritual energies quickly dissipate, at first causing us to feel "high," and when the high wears off and the energy has dissipated, it is easy to feel "low," easy to desire to feel "high" again. However, these energies need time to gather again, and if one chemically ignites this energy too often, one will experience diminishing returns. Although Numinous (靈 ling) Mercury is the treasure of Heaven, by its nature it loves movement: "When it sees Fire if flies away." Unless you obtain True Lead to control it, it roams away without leaving traces. (Liu Yiming, tl Pregadio, Cultivating the Tao, chapter 8). One needs to create this ignition on one's own. Then the fire can be properly managed and integrated without becoming a raging wildfire. Just like building a real fire by hand, without a lighter or match, one needs to work with deep sincerity, cultivating the appropriate internal environment until the inner heat ignites and transforms. It takes time to properly prepare one's vehicle for these higher level transformations. When one jumps ahead of the necessary steps for building a foundation, how can balance be achieved? This "fire" like experience can help dissolve attachments, burning away the energetic patterns held in short term memory and opening more to heavenly knowledge. Too, this fire can clear away bonds with others, dissolving some of the social web we participate within - sometimes that is not really our intent. Again, we need understand how to achieve proper balance of these things on our own. Too much chemically induced fire can leave us depleted of fuel, all burnt up.

I might bring a variation of the above massaged kale salad, and/or perhaps a simple carrot salad: finely grated carrots, some lemon juice, and some brown mustard seeds popped in a rich oil at medium heat. When popped the mustard seeds transform from spicy to nutty - just sprinkle in a couple tablespoons into a small pan, slightly cover with oil (coconut, sunflower, nothing with too low of a burning temp), and cover. Avoid higher than medium heat or they might burn. Just wait for the oil to heat up and the seeds to start popping. Wait until they finish popping (perhaps give a slight nudge to pop any stragglers), then pour over the carrots and mix it all up. Simple and tasty.

Yes! Can a distinction be made between connecting wu wei to the ten-thousand, and connecting the ten-thousand to wu wei? Sometimes I feel bringing emptiness to creation feeds further creation. While guiding creation to wu wei unfolds by simply resting upon wu wei. If we say "here it is!" we provide it like an apple to eat. If we hide it deep within, we draw others to it, helping them to walk their own return.

Well said. If people are open, without judgment, then they naturally flow with resonance, guided towards that which seems interesting, and away from that which doesn't fit. So when we need things to be understood as right and wrong, choices become confusing. Proof of what is right or wrong requires all our different minds to accept a particular standardized system for understanding. But then people only attach to the system to determine what is right or wrong. The western system of understanding reality finds the concept of "qi" very foreign. So it is easiest to use the system to declare qi "wrong," and less easy to prove something using examples. Qi is kinda like advanced technology. You wouldn't expect the non-initiated and non-educated people to understand how it works. But it works on a plane of existence their eyes can see, their ears can hear, etc, so people accept their lack of understanding. Qi requires developing a "new" mode of awareness, a "6th sense," to work with. So it is not surprising those wanting proof only look at what is presentable to their existing senses rather than trying to cultivate a new sensitivity. So on the whole, evolution is leading our species toward greater spiritual awareness. The main limitation, or 'bridge' needing to be crossed is the development of new awareness. And this is hindered by fixed perspectives trained in since childhood, and the availability of good teachers. In time, teachers will become more plentiful, children will have more opportunities for training, and gradually the standards by which we understand our world will adapt to fit in better with reality. So, all up to us....

If a person is still a person perhaps they cannot be said to be non dual, but what prevents them from touching and experiencing non duality within, and rooting to it whilst embracing the rest which non duality encompasses without?