thetaoiseasy

Thanks for reading, Taoiseasy.

This post was inappropriate in this thread, given the poster's situation. Sorry.

^^ I will not deny your experience because of my own. I hope you learn to deal peacefully with your situation.

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^.^

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Thanks for reading, Best, Taoiseasy.

I answered my own question.

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The refinement is completely natural, without a formulaic process - probably much to the chagrin of people who love complicated methods. Virtue is both external and internal. Internally, you watch your thoughts, motivations, and emotions, rejecting the negative ones. This is the tough one. People make sure to refill the gas tank and take their car for a checkup, but who really takes the time to examine themselves? It's much easier to chant mantras, meditate, and read about spinning the fire wheel, or imbibing the heavenly dew. It's difficult to really examine oneself and decide to do act better. Without changing your thought processes, all the methods in the world will not work, because you are playing with dirty water. Externally, the application of virtue is easier: seek to do good and help others. Your other question. Would Buddha have become Buddha without external methods? It's hard to say. He tried all the methods that other people tried. And though he rejected all of the methods, would he still have attained enlightenment without trying those methods? Well, you can say he inborn ascended nature drove him to try them and to see past them and to find his own method, but who really knows? Call it fate, destiny, x. It doesn't matter. But I know that "everyone was a born with a Buddha nature. But all people need to development." I repeat that line to encourage people and myself to start with themselves and not worry about their inborn potential, because everyone has that potential. And needs further development to realize that potential. Truthfully, with a single virtuous thought you have already knocked at the door. But can you keep knocking at the door until it slams open?

I'll just put it this way. Virtue is the best way to refine your sexual energy to higher energy. As you continue to refine your sexual energy with continued virtue, your energy becomes light enough to enter Tao. At that point, you can receive yuan chi directly from the universe, and you no longer work solely with your own sexual energy, to creating the immortal body. Virtue can take you to the door, but without commitment to celibacy at some point in your training, you will have no energy to refine to higher energy..

People are born with degrees of refined energy, some more than others. A truly accomplished master can see how high the energy has ascended in individuals -- in other words, he can see the person's soul development, the state of his soul. When the soul has risen to a certain position, he has entered the Tao and obtained enlightenment. It takes some people their lifetime to reach that point, some are born with that type of energy. At that point, the individual is above virtue. He is virtue. From Tao, he can draw unlimited amounts of yuan chi devoted towards building the spiritual body. He has no need for the thousand methods out there. But enlightenment is just the beginning. It's not even close to developing the full immortal body. To believe that many people have attained enlightenment is false, however. To find someone who has that single attainment is like finding a needle in a haystack. The person usually wears normal clothes and acts like a simpleton, not donned in monk robes and smelling of incense. You'll surely miss him unless you have the same development as the person.

wisdom and virtue is energy.

Yep, I like to fake things.

Here are some small ideas for people to reach "non-contrivance" from my personal experience. I may be talking to the choir, though. The best way to reach non-contrivance is to either imitate it, or to start from contrivance. 1. Alter between action and non-action. Breath 10 intentional breaths, then follow with 10 "free" breaths. 2. Inhale and exhale, then halt your breath for 10 seconds. Then let your body take the next few breaths. Observe. Your body knows how breath properly. 3. Pore breathing is a very effective way to train. For you, place your intention at the upper dan-tien. On inhale, your pores open and air enters through all the pores in your body. On exhale, your pores close and noxious gases are expelled through the pores. In my experience, I find pore breathing the best way to align the internal and external reality of your being. 4. Use physical motions. It's much easier to reach emptiness with hand coordination. Expand the ball with your hands on inhale, condense the ball between your hands on exhale. This is a common qigong exercise you probably know of. The idea here is use the hand coordination for 10 breaths, then without for the next 10 breaths. 5. Hollow your armpits, like you are holding a tennis ball between the armpit. Open your fingers. Drop your shoulders 6. An important point is to learn how to use breath to coordinate upward and downward flow of energy. Typically, on inhale, the energy rises from the perineum to the crown, on exhale it descends from the crown to the perineum. If you can make this an energetic exercise, you quickly forget about the breath. Because after you use the breath to guide the energy for a few repetitions, you can begin using the energy to guide the breath. Further attainment is when you can't tell between whether the breath is moving the energy, or the energy the breath. 7. You may use mantras to prepare your intention. For example, you can say a simple affirmation, "my respiration is soft, gentle, but deep." Repeat it a few times and see how your body responds to that intention. 8. Practice the inhale-exhale-pause series. The pause is the most importance, in my experience. As you gain proficiency, the pause will extend longer and longer. The more effective the pause, the more natural breath that ensues.

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Bruce has a good mind.

I echo what Fu Yue said. I'll phrase it in another way, though. You want to worship your mind by practicing intent. But before you do so, why not first develop a mind worth worshiping in the first place? That mind is the unlimited mind that embraces everything. The unlimited mind doesn't cling to the narrow projections of your wants, dreams and manifestations.

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Moved to med room

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That's a good one, Oldgreen. I wonder what a Holy Guardian Angel is, though. Is that a specific term?

Cultivation without ideology focuses on what we share in common. You will find that we do not share the same Jesus, Muhammad, or Buddha. But we do share the sage's humanistic heart. We may not share the same Father in Heaven, but we do share the light of the Sun. Some people do Tai Chi, some people kneel in mosques, others burn incense to idols, some do mass -- but we all walk on the same mother earth. The only universalist view is the that which focuses on nature.