ChiDragon

“All people are impermanent, so none of them can be witch doctors” Humans are not eternal, thus they cannot be witch doctors. Note: This is nothing new, I just rephrased it.

巫 is a witch 巫 術 is witchcraft 巫醫 is a witch doctor.

薩滿 is the Chinese pinyin of shaman. They are the same thing. Definitions from Oxford Languages : a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing. Ref: https://www.google.com/search?q=shaman&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS902US902&oq=shaman&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i433i512j46i433i512j0i433i512j46i131i433j46i433i512j0i512j0i433i512j0i512l2.9868j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Void is void. No one knows what it is like but only in someone's imagination.

You are right. This is only to convey the thought of spontaneous which it is not the philosophy of Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi does not concern who will be a virtuous person or not. He just want things to be happened in a spontaneous natural way.

Before I can jump into the discussion, I need to do some research. What is the actual meaning or the origin of the term "pure land". To begin with, I look here to get a general idea first: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Land_Buddhism "Pure Land Buddhism (Chinese: 淨土宗; pinyin: Jìngtǔzōng; Korean: 정토종; RR: Jeongto-jong) is a tradition which is primarily focused on achieving rebirth in a Buddha's "pure land" or buddha-field (Sanskrit: buddhakṣetra), which generally speaking is a Buddha's field of influence.[6] Some Buddha-fields are considered to be superior places to spiritually train for full Buddhahood, since a Buddha has compassionately "purified" it for this purpose and since in these realms, one can meet a Buddha face to face and study under them.[6] Since it is much easier to attain enlightenment in one of these buddha-fields (due to the corrupt nature of our age), many Mahayana Buddhists strive to be reborn in such a place."

Tui Na(推拿) is not effective for internal injury or side effects from surgery. It might be it's only good for muscle aches or temporary nervous pain.

No, the goal of spontaneity is not to eliminate all intentions. However, in our case of interest, spontaneity just has more weight over intention. An spontaneous act might have a hidden intention to avoid an accident. However, the spontaneity just came before the intention. One cannot forsee an accident ahead to commit a spontaneous act. One will only see the hidden intent afterwards.

Scenario 1: Here, you are driving along the road at high speed. You saw a person walking in front of your car. Sorry, you didn't stop and ran over the person. Scenario 2: Here, you are driving along the road at high speed. You saw a person walking in front of your car. All the sudden, you turned the steering wheel to avoid hitting the person. Analysis In scenario 1: You had an intention to commit hit and run. It is because you did not do anything drastically to avoid the accident. Your action was constant driving toward the person, it cannot be said that you are spontaneously want to run over the person. Thus this is intentional. In scenario 2: You had spontaneously, without thinking, turning the steering wheel away from hitting the person. Here, you had made a sudden change in the course of driving to prevent an accident. Thus this is spontaneous.

It is obvious that you have some physical issues. The multiple surgeries had caused you some side effects. It is impossible to restore your physical condition back to the normal state as you didn't have multiple surgeries before.

Anything that was intentional is not spontaneous. Something cause you to react to harm with malice is not part of the philosophy of Zhuangzi.

I would be considered it was an accident. A spontaneous act to rescue a person might cause harm to both parties. There is no guarantee that the rescue will be succesfull.

This is not true. To the best of my knowledge, the Ching government was strongly against the practice of witchcraft.

Based on your description, it seems you knew the answer already. Zhan zhuang is causing the left side of the rib cage to go down and in too much. It was restricting your breathing. IMO Hence, it is not suitable for you to continue with the practice of Zhan zhuang.

To my understanding. According to Zhuangzi, spontaneity is something acted out naturally without intent. For example, if I saw a fire burning a house down, I would go look for a water hose to put out the fire or call the fire department. It was a 'spontaneous' act that does not require any prior thinking or planning. Another example is if a lifeguard saw someone drowning in the water, s/he would spontaneously find a way to get to the water to save that person. Again, it was a spontaneous act by natural instinct. Indeed, this is what the theme of Zhuangzi is all about.

You are using the modern definition. It is different from 地气. Go see the post of @Cobie

It is a gasous substance emmited from earth.

I don't think Taoists ever practiced Mantra but tu na(吐納)，abdominal breathing.

Your heart has the desire to fulfill your wishes. Your mind is to find a way to fulfill the desire of your heart.

This applies to all practices and cultivation, 'Realms' simply mean that the highest level of cultivation has been achieved or acquired. For example, the normal breathing can constantly go deeply into the abdomen(LDT). It can be said that the highest realm of breathing has been accomplished.

Only if you believe in it does. Then, it will work for you. IMO It could be very spiritual if your mind is set for it. You are insecure is because your heart is not ready for it. Once you have your mind set for it, then, there should be no doubt about it. You can treat it as the cultivation of Tao. You can visualize that you are in the picture walking along the trail. That will put you in a spiritual mood interacting with nature. That was how I felt when I enlarged the picture. Indeed, it was very spiritual.

It is not that karma gets rebirth, rather it is karma that cause some to rebirth to another realm. Whatever the person did in life will cause s/he to go to hell or heaven or rebirth to be an animal or whatever. Hence, karma is what the person did in life which cause the consequences.

No, it is because you did something good to save someone from danger. If you don't save the swimmer, then you are causing further harm to someone. Hence, you are going against Tao.

Learn to breathe and practice to reach to the UMB level has no interference. Everyone has to breathe but try to do better than normal by practicing. Eventually, from the diligent practice of natural breathing, the breath will go down deeper to reach the abdomen(LDT). That is the UBM.

I have the same feeling about extending the life of the body cells. I had found out that to prolong life is by practicing Qigong, or Taiji. Qigong or Taiji is a form of breathing exercise to capture more oxygen from the air to prolong the life of the body cells. Without oxygen, the body cells will die. With insufficient oxygen, the body cells will live half of their lifespan. With sufficient amount of oxygen or more, the body cells will live longer and produce faster to replace the old cells. Practicing Qigong or Taiji will control the cell reproduction and making them fast enough to extend their lives. Hence, the amount of oxygen determines the life of the body cells due to the cell respiration process. https://www.osmosis.org/answers/cellular-respiration