ChiDragon

清靜無為 Complete stillness and Wu Wei

So far, no one has come up with a good English description or definition of Neigong(內功) yet. Once people understand what it is, it would make it much more clear to be practiced. One should be able to classify which type of method is Neigong or not. The key to it is to tell it what it is and don't say what it isn't......!!!!

九九陽功

IMO It sounds like your sugar level was low. PS...... Few month ago, this never happened to me. Normally, I have a snack in the late afternoon but one day. I was working on something, all the sudden I feel weak and my head was light. Then I lied down, I see the walls in my room were spinning for few minute. I waited the spinning stopped, I was rushed to get something to eat. Then I'm alright. I knew my sugar level low from my past experience when I was a kid.

This was what Zhuang Tze said: " The pile of shit is part of the process of Tao because that was the reason(tao)". Tao was not really there. It was only the process of Tao which had been taken place there.

處眾人之所惡 Water attain places where people disdain 故幾於道 Thus this is close to the characteristic of Tao

上善若水 The most kind(person) is like water 水善利萬物而不爭 Water is good at benefiting all things but not contentious

道淨若水 Tao is pure like water

You are still a gentleman and a scholar in my book........ @ all.... Thank you....!!!

Lines 10 and 11, in the original classic, had specified both Tao and Te to establish the the distinction of the two. Otherwise, the classic wouldn't be called the Tao Te Ching. 10.道(Tao) 生之:(Tao engenders it), 11.德(Te ) 畜之:(Te rears it). MH: "But I will still suggest that Tao is the creating force and Te is the sustaining force." I agree with you 99.99% on this one.

It is fine with me whatever it takes. Let this thread take it course.

有物混成 Something was formed from chaos 先天地生。 Before Heaven and Earth. 吾不知其名， 強字之曰道。 I don't know it's name. I reluctantly call it Tao. For the convenience of description.

A Taoist thought does imply that someone need to have some general insights to appreciate it. One can always go to the Tao Te Ching discussion section to refresh one's memory or get some basic idea and come back. Indeed, I do not wish to defend myself for every thought of the day that I've posted. Thank you very much for your interest. I think that would be a bi-linguistic problem on somebody's part. There is one English speaking member, with no Chinese background, has the prerequisite of the knowledge of the TTC. He has no problem in communication with me. That is a plus in his the contributions to TTB.

Thank for your clear understanding. "Deep and divine" are only adjectives to modify De. Even though we say "divine" but it still doesn't make De before Tao because the "Divine De" is only a description for the virtue of Tao. Thus the De in "Divine De" is not at the same level nor in the same category as Tao. The mentioned tile on the other thread was not very distinctive, by first glance, to know it is the "Divine De" rather than the human De.

Stosh..... Have you ever gone deep into reading the Tao Te Ching yourself; besides reading the various translations and form your own generalization(may not be a proper word for you.. )...??? PS.... We had a thorough discussions about all your doubts in the Tao Te Ching section. This thread is assuming that someone has been following the discussions in the past. I respectfully request not to repeat the lengthy discussions here again.

There was a question about 玄德 some place in the forum. 10.道生之， 11.德畜之。 12.長之育之。 13.亭之毒之。 14.養之覆之。 15.生而不有， 16.為而不恃， 17.長而不宰。 18.是謂玄德。 10.Tao engenders it, 11.Te rears it. 12.Grow it and nourish it, 13.Let it grow to maturity, 14.To foster it and protect it. 15.Produce it but not possessing it. 16. Flourishing it but not being vainglorious. 17.Raise it but not controlling it, 18.It was called the abyssal virtue(玄德). To my understanding, one may take it as an opinion, 玄德 in line 18 is the same 德 in line 11. From lines 12 thru 17 are the finest quality of Tao. These qualities were referred as the virtue of Tao. The virtue of Tao was even embellished as 玄德. 玄德 means the deepest or divine virtue of Tao.

道 is Tao. It is not just only a path but Tao can be translated as "path". Path is just a very narrow definition of Tao. Thanks to English, we can spell Tao and tao to distinguish the two. Unfortunately, one has to grok its meaning from the context in the classic. So, when I said "classic", the reader has to grok its meaning as the "ancient Chinese writing". "Tao" is proper noun. "tao" can be a path or a principle. If Tao is spontaneous, then Tao is not path. However, Tao has a path for all things to follow. A path is always visible. There was no need to grok its quale. Only Tao can be visible or invisible because Tao is not a path. Tao becomes visible only by the manifestation of the existence of all things. The existence of all things was to manifest that Tao is there but hidden with a high potential power to create. Tao has to be manifested to reveal her existence, at first, in order for her to be invisible. Thus that is why we have to grok its quale when Tao is not visible.

恒無,欲以觀其妙. Whenever Tao is invisible, grok its quale. Whenever Tao is visible, observe its boundary. 恒有,欲以觀其徼.

大道自然 萬物隨緣 The great Tao is Spontaneous Let all things follow her path

Let Nature take its course.

A Taoist is the one that follows the basic principles of Wu Wei.

Let Nature take its course.

Let Nature take its course.

You welcome again. Yes, indeed, willing to share perspectives is always nice to start fresh with an open mind for exchanging new ideas/concepts. Now, it is time for me to thank you for participating in the discussion. You really helped to let Wu Wei took its course. Honestly, I couldn't do it alone. Let's hope we can do something like this, again, in the near future. Best regards, CD