raymond

Hi Jordan Unfortunately very few write anything about it until it reaches the level of a medical problem. It is not very useful to look at it that way, for it is a valuable natural skill like having a left-handed pitching arm. I think many of the practices that are written about in these pages would be helpful, perhaps it would be well to practice some form of martial arts. Sitting on the mind is a difficult but very useful practice. ciao, raymond

Hi Rin Ni hao. I think that the use of the term xin zhai 心齋 (mind fasting) by Zhuangzi indicates that there was some form of visceral/emotional alchemy applied to reduce the interior conversation. As a result, the use of words continued at times, but the process was subordinated to intuition: As the neo-daoist said: zhu yi 主一 Make unity the ruler. Unity, the process of undifferentiated mind/body processing. ciao, raymond

Hi Jordan It looks to me like you are on a good path. We all seem to have an inner guidance system that keeps us on the path, if we are able to hear it. I use the irritation of things as a device that I can harness and use for transformation of my body-mind. And also to give me an increased ability to listen to the inner guidance. I simply focus on the feeling instead of the rant that is running in my head. Emotions are alchemical agents that can be used to cultivate a higher capacity for awareness and happiness. By the way, you might want to consider if you might have the "thousand horse condition." By horses, I mean units of intelligence. Most of us have about 100 horses, and with difficulty we can keep them from going in too many directions at once. If you have a thousand horses you can do amazing things, but you can also become lethally depressed if the horses start tearing you apart. If you ever get into serious trouble along those lines, (I don't think you will) I can ask a friend of mine who has one thousand horses to give you some tips. But I don't want to ask him for this unless/until you get into serious trouble. ciao, raymond

Greetings. I live in California, practice and write about apophatic mysticism. I am impressed by the wealth of useful (you yong) information here. raymond sigrist

Thanks for the warm welcome and generous comments Peregrino, freeform and Sean To Peregrino: I think the book could be ready by next summer. I think I will try to publish it myself so readers can be allowed to copy anything from it they want to. Or all of it. Here are some of the central concepts of apophatic mysticism, as I see it, which I hope to treat in the book: 應物而不窮者也 Ying wu er bu qiong zhe ye Be unrestricted in responding to things. Zhuangzi chapter 14 抱神以靜，形將自正。 Bao shen yi jing, xing jiang zi zheng Gather your mind-body energy into inner stillness and your outer being will regulate itself spontaneously. Zhuangzi chapter 11 raymond