konchog uma

well the MCO starts with imaginings, and as long as you know they are imaginings right now, thats a good sign that youre on your way. Just stick with it, qi is so subtle that it builds but just a little every day so we don't notice it, and then if you compare your energy today with your energy a month ago, you would notice, but you can't do that directly. I don't know if that made any sense buddhist breathing and daoist breathing are a good combo, just something for consideration. I hope more people chime in to help you.

whats Kostas Danaos got that the rest of us bums don't have?? ohh thats right.....magic powers. hahaahah maybe you should just post your questions here and see what happens?

Hi mokona, maybe it would help if you said what you were practicing, or which practices you had heard lacked effectiveness without reserve of energy. I think its true that energy work is more effective the more qi you have, so maybe the second part isn't as relevant. I think the most effective thing for me in building energy is reverse abdominal breathing, and daily practice. Just my 2c

most buddhism has nothing to do with the way buddha was, like christianity has nothing to do with the life of christ. I like the fusion of bon shamanism with vajrayana that became tibetan buddhism, and i also like vajrayana in its pure form, both as a philosophy and a set of practices. If i were in the himalayas i might make a fine sadhu in the sahajayana tradition, but it might drive me crazy who knows. And while tendai and mikkyo have a lot of great practices, good luck finding a legitimate teacher. Tendai practitioners complain about "pretendai" ... daoism needs a similar pun! hahaha all i can think of is "doh-ism" in reference of homer simpson.. i'll keep working on it.. aaaanyway i agree with you, most of it (orthodox buddhism) can take a long walk. But thats just me, and i'm glad so many people find benefit to it as well. Im just chiming in cause i'm a practicing buddhist who is glad for it every day but still feels repulsed by the orthodoxy.

qigong predates daoism as its thought of today, although so does daoism if you know what i mean. I mean that there are qigongs with roots in shamanism and pre-lao pre-yellow emperor china. There are native american qigongs, and, i think, african qigongs, and probably euro-shamanic qigongs but i have never heard of them. So i think its incorrect to say that qigong is of daoist origin. Just 2c not trying to be argumentative. and yes taiji at a higher level is like qigongs, where you can draw energy in, or up, or use the breath and body movement to accomplish specific purposes. My qigong/taiji teacher teaches some of the taiji movements as just qigong, like silk reeling to chen style for example, but you can do that with any taiji movement. Well, that last part is extrapolation, i am eager to hear if anyone disagrees with it...

some people build up potential until it flips like a switch, and some people become removed of their mental and energetic burdens gradually. It largely depends on the practices they are engaging in and the nature of their individuality. In rough terms, buddhist breathing and sitting seems to facilitate more often the sudden enlightenment, while daoist practices seem more gradual. Those are very rough terms tho, don't take them too seriously. enlightenment as a concept is nebulous and strange to talk about. Its more a buddhist concept than a daoist one, but i think there is an actual reality to it, although it does not have a location in spacetime. (everywhere! hahahha) I think that the nature of the mind is freedom, and the nature of reality is infinite. So our minds, in reality, should be infinitely free, but there is conditioning of an experiential, a social, and a familial nature which limits us in our capacity to actually experience limitless freedom, and the bliss that accompanies it. So by practices that remove the conditioning from our psyches, and the memories from our energy bodies, we can become closer to the state of freedom that is the experience of our "true selves" or our limitless selves, one with everything so the cliche goes. In short, thats enlightenment with a capital E. But there are many small enlightenments for some, again a gradual process, so thats enlightenment with a small e. I try to have 8 or more enlightenments per day! But thats just me. I don't put a lot of stock in the big Enlightenment since if i ever earn it, it will probably be another very gradual shift from "nearly almost enlightened" to "actually enlightened" not some earth-shattering leap from "duh" to "whoa". enlightenment can be triggered by anything, a rock on the street, a banana peel, a wise master, someone else who is enlightened. In vajrayana, and i think most buddhism, enlightenment is the natural state of everything. There is just artifice which prevents us from seeing it. So like the meaning of "namaste" which i have seen translated as "the light in me bows to the light in you" or in other words "i honor your buddha nature" which is inherent. So the chair you are sitting on possesses the buddha-nature, and contemplation of that truth can cause you enlightenment. It might even cause you Enlightenment! who knows i think it is a natural desire for people to want to be free. Enlightenment is a more fettered concept than freedom, but in essence, if you strip away the artifice, they are the same. So yes i think all beings want to exist in a blissful state of limitless freedom, there are just limitations and restrictions to being able to. Biologically it boils down to pleasure/pain i think. Freedom is pleasurable (bliss) while restriction is painful and annoying. as to whether i would post on taobums, thats speculation. I have dropped so much of my life by the side of the road, parts of it i could not imagine living without. If i dropped taobums it would just be another thing i dropped. But i don't believe in the ideal of enlightenment as somehow separate from mundane reality. In other words, they are One And The Same, so while a person is overwhelmed by samsara there is longing for nirvana so they want enlightenment but when they get it they realize that things are inevitably cyclical, there is always duality, but now life is like a passing charade that they watch, they do not get caught up in it and stuck to it in overwhelming and draining ways. So it can amuse them and bring them benefit and lessons (buddha nature) instead of burdening them like it used to because they are not Attached to it. With that in mind, i think that i would happily post on daobums when i receive my final enlightenment because i see no point in attaining the highest spiritual state and then refusing to help others. WTF is that nonsense.. that is the essence of selfishness, and not the expression of compassion or virtue at all. There is no enlightenment outside of the dust of the world. We just shift our perspective from resenting the dust to becoming like the birds who take baths in it. That isn't to say that enlightened people wallow in the world's miseries, but to say that they see the usefulness in situations, things, and people, because their perception is not fettered by the conditioned mind and the illusions of the lower self. The goalless goal is already achieved in your heart. Stop focusing on the fence and realize your inner nature. Then you will realize that there are countless ways over, around, under, and through the fences that you encounter. Most of them are generated and sustained by the mind itself, and those that aren't are attracted to the mind by its resonance and nature. Polish the mirror. Thanks for the thoughtful questions. Many daoists don't even address enlightenment, or address it differently. I framed this post in the terminology of buddhism because enlightenment is (roughly speaking again) to buddhism what immortality is to daoism.

i think maybe its cause you're inventing ideas as you go along and have no factual basis other than that you intuited it yourself. You say things in absolute terms when yin and yang aren't even absolute concepts. Taiji builds yin and yang energy for example. Its only a yang practice to you in your model. Like saying yin practice can be dangerous because you open your chakras and such, I have to agree with the crowd that i have no idea what you are talking about. If people's likes and dislikes don't concern you, don't get so bent out of shape when people disagree with you. Youre taking timeless concepts and kind of reinventing them as you see them. Not only are you begging for criticism, but you're doing it in a falsely self assured and clearly opinionated way. We aren't in the stone age because we disagree with you buddy. I am glad to see you thinking for yourself and not accepting doctrine de facto, but then again, some doctrines are what they are for good reason.

if they were on the internet they wouldn't be lost teachings would they?

chuang tzu devotes section after section to talking about why perceived uselessness has its virtue and advantages, thats what makes me think so. as to being eaten for food, i didn't say that it was a free ride, i said that i can see master chuang's take on it, that those creatures are auspicious because they aren't exploited. why would i say one possibility again? I have said it, and repeated it right there, they aren't exploited. i suggest re-reading master chuang, he is a master and i am not. Maybe sleep on it and come back to it in a while and see if you can see how that part you quoted ties in with the couple of chapters about uselessness and its virtue. I can't really explain it now cause i'm tired. Its past my bedtime and i'm still on the interwebs... If tomorrow or in a couple days we're still talking about it, maybe i can be more help

i like that the magus-priest is contrasted to the spiritual person.

because the rest of creation doesn't clamor to exploit them

Once again mjjbecker, thank you so much. I was especially pleased by the answers, for what that's worth. If Kostas ever reads this, thank you very much.

hahaha funny! you don't act like a master. i think it takes more guts to admit that you're still learning. We're always learning. Like WBBM said, mastery is something that is passed down by lineage, so unless you're a master of delusion, nobody is going to recognize your attainment. many people think when they hear the doctrine of buddha nature that they are buddhas, or think because the essential nature of mind is enlightenment, that they are therefore enlightened, or because they have mastered a couple techniques that they are a sifu. That doesn't make it true.

right. in answer to adj's question, the movie was a cheap con. It purported to be the revelation of a spiritual secret, which is that we can manifest what we focus on intently. First of all, that's no secret whatsoever, thats entry level mysticism. Second of all, the angle they played was all about accumulating wealth, and in a couched way saying that the poor and suffering were only that way because they didn't know how to magically manifest things from the infinite miraculous essence of life itself. They took a materialistic approach to something spiritual, and in so doing, cheapened and polluted it. People began focusing on that expensive handbag or the nice car they could have, and while perpetuating the consumer myth of modern western society, thought naively that they were utilizing some great spiritual secret. Only an unawakened dimwit DOESN'T realize that their intentions are tangible and can manifest. And while taking advantage of all the unawakened dimwits who wanted a spiritual fad to latch onto, they make a mockery of actual compassion or anything vaguely resembling spiritual truth. In short, its wealth-based in a sad attempt to appeal to those who think they can buy happiness. If they could only "manifest" more money. @seth: that story is halarious, i find it almost funny that the circumstances that they manifest for themselves are so negative. I don't usually find that sort of thing funny either.

the bee daoist is amazing! thanks for sharing! +1

When i was 14 i wondered what meditation was about, so i sat on my bed and closed my eyes. I kept them closed til i lost the ability to recreate the room in my mind's eye, and got sort of psychically "lost in space". I still remember how awesome and refreshing it felt. I was hooked. When i was 18 I started to study Shaolin Kungfu and Yang style Taijiquan, and my meditations doubly increased. I dealt with the inevitable pains of those years by sitting for long hours. I talked to scholars and masters whenever i could about buddhism and daoism, crafted a daoist alter in my meditation space, and cultivated the way as sincerely as i could. When i was 19, i packed my backpack and hit the road as a self-styled "wandering daoist". I lived out of soup kitchens and with rainbow family as i travelled the country by hopping trains and hitchhiking. I got out of the phase of meditating hours a day and into the action of living life full time. Drugs and alcohol took their toll, and i dealt with several of life's blows by trying to self medicate. I ate too much LSD, too many mushrooms, not in a respectful sacred way, but as a self-indulgent stupid modern person would. The backlash of that was Buddhism. I was ordained by a Nyingma holy man, and sat with a Karma Kagyu group. I found increasing degrees of inner peace as i applied the ideas and lifestyle to my path. As my life mellowed out, i just kept reading classics and sitting, practicing mindfulness and polishing the mirror. I guess i have always just been drawn to spiritual pursuits, and the more i practice, the more i see that the strength that comes from flexibility is greater than the strength which comes from from force.

uma mohan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuEGsKS0Zkk&feature=related

http://www.life-in-crisis.info/dao-de-jhing.pdf

"desire is just a memory of pleasure. Fear is just a memory of pain." -sri nisargadatta maharaj

i think deci belle had it right with point 1 up there. People are fools. The ideas aren't easily grasped, and if you say them once, then the mind thinks "oh i understand that" and moves on, meanwhile, it hasn't realized anything. The habits remain and the lifestyle doesn't change. So by repeating it he forces us to realize "oh he is trying to make some kind of point here" or "theres something deeper he is talking about" or some such reflection on what he is saying. i have quite a mind for the mystical concepts, nondualistic nonsense and all that, but the daodejing is still mystifying. I don't think it could be written any other way but to come at the reader from all different angles about the same issues, using different metaphors and turn of phrase, but saying the same thing over and over and over. Thats the only way a person could possibly begin to understand the sublime truth of it.

yeah i can see why the headmaster spirit is grumpy, it turned into a circus i mean i have watched john chang vids on youtube and shared them with those i loved, but all the neophytes who feel qualified to criticize and harangue and go on and on about their insignificant points of view blow my mind. there is a good reason why some things are kept secret. At least its a lesson in that

that one seems weird because its a retelling of the chapter immediately previous. Maybe it seemed a point worth making twice. I like the story about Scattered Apart. Its hard to understand what the author means when he says "how much more would one whose virtue is scattered" but i don't think he means virtue in the sense of natural virtue, i think he means social virtue or "confucian" virtue. Just my take on it, i could be wrong.

i like the idea of the tree not considering itself sacred, just using that idea to ward off death. I also like the idea of the yinyang of useless and useful, since it had to fulfill some purpose lest people just destroy it because thats what people do, it became a shrine and hence balanced its uselessness with usefullness in a natural way. i really took those ideas to heart when i was younger, and i wanted to be a useless shrine. Kind of like the body as temple metaphor, i mean. I gave up my aspirations and began to study taiji and meditate for long hours a day. Its nice to see that i have come close to attaining my uselessness in life, and that the people that really know me find me very useful!

yes.

Ripley's Believe it or Not sends team w infrared camera to investigate qigong master who can emit 200+ degrees heat from his hands. Then the master demonstrates how he can lighten his weight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWCn8PkHeuk&feature=related