Harmonious Emptiness

For the record, I can understand how this "butt" advice is actually very useful. If you're trying to push energy anywhere in the body, the same type of focus and internal pushing is a useful reference. It's a good thing that Chang wasn't too "retentive" or immature to explain it this way. I'm interested to hear more, however, your instructor will be reluctant to share if he finds his stuff here. On the other hand, he might give you the goods if it's going to benefit the schools reputation .

what? you don't like these titles?

I see... The Way of Virtue, The Virtue of Dao.. Another thing I'm very interested to hear your view on, is in regards to "meaning of Ch'an according to Hui-Neng" topic. I understand that Ch'an Buddhism could be translated as Dhyana Buddhism, but I don't get how Dhyana turned into "Ch'an" when so many other Sanskrit words remained similar to the original. Especially, when Ch'an had another meaning regarding repentance. Please excuse the unrelatedness.

I think I'm seeing from the last explanation that he meant it is actually impossible to have a mixed race main spirit. Given that physical racial types can be inhabited by spirits of a different race, it could be said that it doesn't care what race someone is; however, it still seems to believe that each race is inhabited primarily by the spirit of the same race, and that each race is inherently different. Though not as horribly racist as the first impression that was given, this still subscribes to racialist views, nonetheless. So, I would be very interested to hear what these "functions" of each race are... Sounds pretty similar to Darwinist views without hearing the rest of it. Like "blacks were meant to do physical things" when in reality, the ancient Egyptians were black and started pretty much every spiritual and scientific theory known to man. This doesn't mean blacks are superior, it just means that maybe they got here first.

Wow, so it could really be called "Classic on the Way of Virtue"? Dao De = Way of Virtue, yes?

Yeah, that makes sense to me. It's all an intuitive understanding, so if we call it the vanilla and the strawberry, it really doesn't matter... Ha ha. Okay. Peace. For now.

Informer: "Now that this perspective is achieved, the idea of what self once was, is no longer self as previously understood. Yet you still are unable to say there is not or never was a self, to embody the totality, as that would obviously be false. No-self is equivallent to Is-self, neither which is in between by theirself. (middle path)" Yes, well, even upon realization of annata, there is still openness, clarity, and sensitivity (according to a Tibetan explanation), so there is, let's say at least A SOUL, that is open, clear, and sensitive. The thing is that THE SOUL, and THE SELF are not the same things. The self is tied up in identity which is really just a pragmatic reality, subject to changing belief. The soul is like the drop or cup of water from a river. When it is cleaned of the microbes that grew on/in it, it is entirely the same as the essential substance in the river (lets not get into salt vs. fresh water please. It's just a metaphor...). That drop of water is just water. It might be Indian water, or Chinese water, or US water, but in reality it is WATER just the same. The difference being the substance of soul and the fact that soul has consciousness (which might exist in an ocean spirit as well. I suspect the people that know about that wouldn't get into long philosophical debates about it though

Where is this from btw? I found a bit of an inconsistency with his concluding statement and what he'd been saying all through the essay. He says at the end that it's a mistake to say annata=no atman, based on the the discussion, but the discussion only showed that Buddha refuted the idea of their being no soul. I have read a translation of the Pali Cannon where Buddha supposedly said soul does not exist, but this could easily be a common mistranslation. There are not a few inconsistencies like this in the sutras, quite possibly due to the translation.

You could say that beliefs/views/ideas are like another type of stimulation that needs to be released so that we can enjoy *simplicity.* Running right back into clinging to this concept to release us. Here was a haiku I posted related to this Do without doing Untangle without tying Oh, how the knots grow trying to untangle from the ideas, we can end up tying ourselves back up with the idea that we were using to untangle ourselves. This results in further bondage to ideas rather than liberation.

Important and fascinating French (English st) documentary about organic, sustainable, farming and how we are doomed without it. "Think Global Act Local" edit: ah, so that link is not the full movie nor in English. However, the movie (available on netflicks) is crucially important. In sum, it talks about: how organic sustainable farming is easier, cheaper, usually more productive, as well as healthier for the farmer, the land and the consumer; how soil does not need to be tilled with the right crops growing on it to constantly shade and fertilize it, with the shade also conserving water; how GMO crops have resulted in certain fruit and vegetable species being made illegal to grow with many already extinct as a result. This ensures that only the GMO seeds for their few apples, pears, etc. can be grown, and the threat this is to nature, humanity and the worlds economy. how chemical fertilizers were created to sell off overstocks of chemical weapons after WWI and II, how they kill all the life in the soil which is needed for proper, crubmly, growing soil, and create requirements for GMO crops that are not killed by these fertilizers; This issue seems to be the single greatest threat to humanity and peace in the world at large, and will cause either a revolution or massive destruction of humanities ability to sustain itself worldwide. Without going into detail -- the problems of the world are not without fairly simple solutions, it's just that those with power are not altruistic, and will let everything around them get destroyed before they relinquish power.

Yes, exactly. Would you consider Liu I Ming more of a religious Daoist then? Would the the Northern part of Complete Reality Daoism be considered to be more "religous" or does their focus on alchemy remove this description? Yes, that looks like the same part - from the first book when C'hi Po talks about the seasons. "[in summer] They should not weary during daytime and they should not allow their minds to become angry. They should enable the best parts (of their body and spirit) to develop; they should enable their breath to communicate with the outside world; and they should act as though they loved everything outside. All this is in harmony with the atmosphere of Summer and all this is the method for the protection of one's development... [in winter].. They should suppress and conceal their wishes, as though they had no internal purpose, as though they had been fulfilled.." So, as mentioned in the Dao De Jing too, acting with weak virtue will harm the body, whereas acting virtuously will protect it. This is speaking of the body, but I wonder how much about the spirit has been re-worded as breath or mind. The translation I have uses "the life-giving force"' for what was probably Chi in the original. "When the liver receives the life giving force from the heart, it is from there transmitted to the spleen..."

Well, especially in regards to a subject as (get ready for some talk here) philosophically paradoxical as this topic of no-self, being able to discuss it or not discuss it obviously has a great deal to do with your articulation and education on the subject. Somebody, say for example, like a true Indigenous shaman, will be so incredibly unattached to their "I, me, mine" and yet ask them if they have a self.. I wouldn't be surprised if they asked you what kind of foolish question is that, and yet they would embody the true nature of it. I guess it's kind of like assuming someone needs to be a superb musician to "have soul." Some people feel everything to the core of their being but they wouldn't fill any auditoriums with their singing. On the other hand, maybe someone who can talk the talk just further confuses themself with so many ideas, or worse, mistakes their articulation of wisdom for wisdom itself.

Its certainly difficult to come to agreements on some things from the cerebral level. It sounds like by surrendering story, you're thinking in the line of the Sutra of Hui Neng which states that "Idea-lessness," rather than "thoughtless, no-thought," is the proper understanding. "Idealessness means not to be carried away by any particular idea in the exercise of mental faculty. (chapter 4)" compare that to the verse from The Lankavatara: "By the cessation of the sense-minds is meant, not the cessation of their perceiving functions, but the cessation of their discriminating and naming activities which are centralised in the discriminating mortal-mind.(chapter 5)" The cessation of sense-minds, true, is not to be total cessation. That would be to misunderstand chapter 12 of Dao De Jing as well : The five colours blind the eye. The five tones deafen the ear. The five flavours dull the taste. For having in excess, dulls the senses. When the senses are dulled, men look for more stimulation. Not to miss the fact that the DDJ was/is immensely influential on Chinese discourse of Buddhism, as Buddhism was later on discourses of Taoism. That is to say, on the way that these shared views were expressed.

Hmm. Yes, using Spirit instead of Valley Spirit is much more directly revealing of the message here. I guess one of the reasons Te and Shen seem so similar is that a lot of the discourse on virtue seems to suggest "just have Shen, and you will have all other virtues"; such as saying that the Confucian virtues appear when harmony fades. Shen seems to definitely be part of Te. What I'm less sure of is if Te cultivates Shen. I think Te certainly protects Shen, keeps people from losing Shen. I suppose if someone is virtuous for long enough then they will increase Shen, but I can't remember an exact passage about this. There is a part in the Treatise of the Yellow Emperor on Internal Medicine, where he more or less says to be natural and loving during the Summer so that you won't get an illness in the winter, and different modes of behaviour for each season that will protect the body, but I don't know that this was meaning that seasonally appropriate virtuous behaviors will protect you by strengthening Shen, though one might draw this conclusion independently.

I do like this Flowing hands translation (though it's not necessarily miles from the understanding available from other ones... edit: I take that back. Some word usages are definitely very different. Something wrong with my mind-mouth channel recently ) Here is his tranlation of Chapter 29 Do you think you can take over the Universe and then improve it? It can never be done. The Universe is sacred, it can never be improved. If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to possess it, you will only lose it. In the Ten Thousand Things, as well as man, one never feels quite the same everyday. So, sometimes things are ahead and sometimes behind. Sometimes breathing becomes difficult, sometimes it is easy. Sometimes there is strength and sometimes there is weakness. Sometimes one feels up and cheerful, but sometimes one feels down. This is natural; for we are all subject to the Heavenly bodies that influence our lives. The Sage experiences these as well as ordinary men, for he is one of the Ten Thousand Things. What I understand from this is the way to be when following The Way. One must be as though they are handling a sacred object. They do not criticize the chipped paint, or the scratched surfaces, or the old dirt; they hold it reverently and with great love, respect, and admiration. The Tao must be approached in the same way. It also makes me think of a fine hand drum. A master must become one with the drum in a way so that they do not interfere with natural sound that comes from this drum and the way it was put together. When they do this, they can discover most subtle nuances of sound within it, and bring them out, and even allow them to penetrate into the resonance of their own body. Tai Chi and Qi Gong masters will also understand this.

I'll add here that there also seems to be a great connection between De-Virtue and Shen-Spirit. It seems that when somebody cultivates one, the other will also increase. Teachers who say not to waste time with energy practices, such as Liu I Ming, appear to say that the focus on virtue is enough to cultivate "the gold pill" of immortality. I'm open to more information on this, however...

I had a bout with a serious back issue where I could barely walk to the bathroom. Eventually I went to see a really good massage therapist who, in one session, balanced out the muscle tension on the left and right sides of my lower back. He showed me 2 stretches to do and I have never had to go back. Any time I feel the pain coming back I do the stretches and it goes away. Stretch one: fetal position lying on your back, pull the knees into the chest for 30 seconds. Stretch two: grab door frame at waist height with one hand, palm facing out, lean back and down a bit to pull on the lower waist. Switch sides. I did these twice a day to start, and it keeps the muscles from pulling everything out of line when one side gets tighter.

Not to mention that too much protein robs the body of calcium which is much harder to find than protein. Osteoporosis reports of vegetarians compared to the fast-food beef consumers would be interesting...

Do without doing Untangle without tying Oh, how the knots grow

This is why I was talking about references, reading the sutras, earlier. Now that you have a bit broader of an understanding of what is meant, without too many limiting misconceptions, maybe no-mind doesn't seem so inconceivable. It's difficult to "put your finger on" but without seeing that The Buddha refutes many of the misconceptions, it's pretty much absurd to even try. I get the impression that these misconceptions were not mentioned as part of the RT doctrine. If not, then people who didn't check out what it's all about will easily be misguided to seek something which doesn't exist (in it's non-existence, wtv...), and end up convincing themselves that they have experienced something which in fact is both less complicated (being more grounded in reality), and more complicated (involving awareness of several surrounding pitfalls of the process and realization) than what they seem to perceive. This may not be the case every time, but the door seems to be wide open for anyone who wants to fall into many of the delusions refuted in the later chapters of The Lankavatara. I think that as you read it, you will probably see a few of the pitfalls you were not taught to avoid, the oversight of which resulted in a lesser or false awakening. This will continue to be the case when people want a quick commodified type of enlightenment without at least doing a lot of their own homework in the absence of a true teacher.