konchog uma

 

As an aside, one thing I'm finding is that unconditional love is not as important as caring for someone dispassionately. Without an emotional attachment it is much easier to make the right decision for that person. That's not knocking unconditional love, in fact I encourage people to aspire to it, the point is that if you do not have unconditional love for everyone, then it is completely conditional, the condition being that one person.

 

Aaron

i dont think they're mutually exclusive. when i practice "attitude no attitude" or dispassionate acceptance, i am full of love cause im calm and balanced. i think its More unconditional from that place

I don't know anything about their application in Taoism but I do know a few people who are very much into the properties of crystals and stones.

 

I have a rock/mineral collection I gathered when I took a tour of the US, Nothern Mexico and Southern Canada back in the late 1980s but I have not attached any spiritual significance to anything in the collection.

 

However, in Cherokee spirituality, my Medicine Stone is the turquoise.

well thats pretty cool. i have had the privilege to sweat lodge with some indigenous americans but never really talked to them about the spirituality of stones. i have read books from NA perspective, but they say the stones are the intelligence of mother earth that are given to us.

in hermetic thought the mineral plane was a plane of consciousness like plant, animal, and human. as you went up the scale, you found beings more capable and less wise. so stones can't do anything but they embody the highest wisdom. for that reason i think its good to cultivate relationship with them as a human. for me they help me get in touch with subtle vibrations and remember that life is strange, i treat them like they are alive, and i talk to them. i dont care if i sound wierd, a person can talk to anything, and if they invoke it right it will respond. you could have a psychic conversation with the chair youre sitting on if you wanted to, its just how the mind works. but annnyway, i just wondered what daoist masters did with crystals... auric healing? meditations? grind it up and drink it? im really curious

i am curious as to daoist (or anything else since this is in the general discussion forum) understanding of crystals and stones. when i was a kid i was drawn to them, and i still wear a pouch around my neck with crystals in it. i guess i just resonate with them.

does anyone have information about them from a "spiritual" perspective, not so much a "magickal" perspective? cause ive read a lot about crystals and their metaphysical purposes, but i ask because in the intro to fusion of 5 elements, mantak chia said that daoists used crystals to aid their practice as part of external alchemy.

"For more than five thousand years, Taoist masters researched

and developed various methods to attain such desirable

achievements as long life and happiness. Some of the methods

were called External Alchemy, and these included the Immortal

Pill, magic potions, crystals, crystal essences, flower essences,

precious stones, etc. The highest Taoist masters realized external

methods offered only limited help while building dependencies on

materials that were difficult to come by."

does anyone have any leads on information about what these masters did with their crystals? i am curious. thank you!

my newest crystal! an amethyst with a nice phantom that my friend dug out of the ground in thunder bay ontario... too bad my phonecam liked the plant in the background better!

and one of great places are the Zoo and the botanical garden, place with great varients of life forms, they are like medicine.

oh very yes!

i might add parks, especially with wooded trails, and woods in general, for city dwellers.

all those places make my energy feel expansive and connected. boxes made of bricks make it feel constricted and distant.

i digress

I find I can't use my vacuum cleaner without attachments ... am I doomed????

to a dusty hell

i have been taught right behind the teeth to close the small orbit.

the soft palette on the top of your mouth is used for drawing symbols and such, and im sure, for other things as well. but thats the only use i have ever put it to. charging the tongue with energy and drawing characters or symbols with light up there is something i found in a daoist book.

Thanks. That is some dirt cheap knowledge. I might check it out. To be honest, my initial reaction to the sexual stuff was "whoa, really? well, that's not for me, I have much higher aspirations than enhancing my bedroom prowess!" but . . . what the heck, right? Why not check it out.

thats the spirit!

i think that it all ties into one, so you can use the bedroom arts to nourish your spiritual practice. jing to qi, qi to shen and all.

besides, when did it ever hurt anyone to understand the arts of love? probly never! (i have reached my quota of absolute statements for the evening... )

So, there's been a lot of talk on these forums about taoist sexual practices. I am pretty much ignorant of such things. My tai chi instructor has not once made mention of them. So . . . I am now offically searching for an instructor in the art of chi nookie...or whatever its called.

 

I would prefer my instructor be asian and hott. (WITH TWO T's!!)

 

Oh, and uh, well versed in the chi nookie ways.

 

That is all.

check out daniel reid's book "the tao of health sex and longevity" for the good breakdown

http://www.slideshare.net/guest80125e8/daniel-reid-the-tao-of-health-sex-and-longevity-300-b-n-texto-foto

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Health-Sex-Longevity-Practical/dp/067164811X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314914314&sr=1-1

used copies on amazon for $1.12... thats awesome

so i just talked to my teacher on the phone, and he didn't want to answer my questions over the phone but we're going for a walk in the woods tomorrow evening. so i will ask him about qi/light and dantiens/chakras, and i will post here tomorrow night.

also i am going to check out a qigong class tonight to see if i want to join this school

http://www.stillmountaintaichi.com

so if i have a chance to ask the teacher anything i will ask him about the middle and upper dantien and how that all works. if he has anything really neat to say i will post that here too.

but for NOW i don't have anything to say except that i will say more interesting things later! hahhaha stay tuned

I think he did mention certain amounts for certain age groups, but, com'n, my willy is not billy's willy, you know what I mean?

i just wanted to see that again.

Small Fur mentioned for the entire practice... for sure. what you can also do is... leave it there essentially 24x7. Make it a lifestyle change to create the Energetic Continuity.

yep eben ip it mapes you halk lipe ish

you'll know you've attained enlightenment when you stop caring about the funny looks people give you!

j/k and poking fun i hope dawei doesnt mind its good advice

That's way narrow! Sounds like Stig's thinking process. Look at it quantumly,...Yang is a particle, Yin is a wave. You cannot ever see them both at the sametime.

that doesnt really negate what i said. and what i said isnt narrow. what i said is that water is more yang than ice in the way of temperature, and more yin than ice in the way of hardness.

its just an example that points to a principle. extrapolate. Thats whats worth focusing on, not whether or not you agree with me. i know that warm = yang is simple, but its not narrow because thats not the breadth and depth of my understanding. i was trying to illustrate one point. it was Supposed to be simple

This stuff is more basic than kindergarten arithmatic,...thus I have no idea why you're not seeing it. That is meant to be disrespectful,...I'm just asking why.

hahaha vmarco i see it in my way, you see it in yours. maybe we can talk as long as we aren't trying to convince each other. i was talking about not getting lost in abstractions but seeing things in holistic way. thats all. i don't personally care whether you believe me or not, im not trying to convince you.

also "that is meant to be disrespectful"... well thanks, i think i know what you meant, but nice freudian slip! ahhahaah

Warm water is not more yang than cold water. LOL Water comes from the disintegration of rocks, which expel CO2,...water is Yin because its moving away from solidity.

i think that there are probably as many versions of string theory as there are capable physicists. that is to say that when you get to the fundamental levels of reality, things are SOOO basic (yin? yang? oneness?) that they become open to multiple interpretations. so you have yours and i have mine, and thats fine. nothing i said was really meant to negate your interpretations, just to remind you that thinking in dualistic terms leads to mental rigidity, which is very un-dao!

How do we stop our frustration like with schoolwork or if i'm frustrated or bored because i have a really long period of Spanish or frustration in any case?

breath and mindfulness are good tools for that. i agree that frustration comes from stress, your mind invents the stress in most cases. you don't have to be sitting with your eyes closed and incense burning to practice breath and mindfulness.

maybe next time you feel tense and frustrated, stressed out, you can practice watching your breath and keeping it deep and slow. see if that doesn't help you have some better feelings. it'll give you something to do thats relevant to your cultivation so thats nice. but with practice, you can also make stress go away, or stop it from starting in the first place.

Those are excellent points. Everything is both Yang and Yin,...what we are perceiving is the stage of "rhythmic balanced interchange." No,...water is not yang to ices's yin,...but the other way around. Ice, albeit water, is solid, thus Yang-ish, while water is moving away from solidity, thus Yin-ish. As you said "in some ways, yin to ice's yang (hardness for example)."

well water is warmer than ice.

so thats yang.

If we are only seeing Form and the Yin-ness of Form (Eve), we are recognizing Yin as herself (Lilith). Adam and Eve are not equals within a "rhythmic balanced interchange." Adam and Lilith are the Yang and Yin. But as Lilith was demonized, so to was the Yin of Tao demonized, and apparently unrecognized by contemporary Daoist p

well, i think your mixing metaphors, trying to bring eve and lilith into a discussion of daoist principles. theres little reason to believe anything in the bible literally, even the first 5 books. lots of metaphor, lots of regurgitation of other culture's mythologies, i don't know if lilith or eve really existed at all, and i'm inclined to stay out of the discussion. i think i already said my contribution with the 'everything is both is some way' bit.

fantastic. the brownlight..shared planetary chakra. the gaian intelligence. I have been lloking for that piece of information. thank you (:

youre welcome

@ sloppy zhang: you make a good case. thanks for the counterpoint.

my personal experience with NLP is that a lot of creeps use it. i think bandler and grinder were shysters (although the structure of magic is a good read), and although milton erickson was a true mystery of a genius, those who have been inspired by his work have sometimes gone down a darker path. i don't find (and this is just my personal experience) people who want to use NLP to heal as much as i find people who want to use it to influence others and get what they want. so when someone says "oh i can offer this NLP technique that will help you get Whatever you want!", i automatically cringe.

i personally still think what i thought up there, but i am glad you made such a strong case for your views, it is eyeopening to consider the value of what i tend to dismiss. thank you.

i will only add that there are a lot of ways to become more assertive and attractive to others, lots of methods to practice and in the end its all about being yourself and true to your own heart which you can't learn in expensive videos and seminars. you can only learn by doing it.

just like cellular division, and daoist cosmology, one divides into two. but nothing stops there. 2 divides into 4, in cells, making a neat little tetrahedron, and in cosmology, adding "both" and "neither" to the mix. 4 divides into 8 and i think the bagua has that covered, and before you know it you have 64 but my point isnt numerological, because it never stops. if you had the time you could find a way of dividing things sensibly into five million parts and classifying them thusly. but you don't. annyway my point is that things don't stop with yin and yang, or with the ideas of both and neither. life is fluid and nothing is binary without being quadriary<sp> and on and on, so all this philosophical debate is nice but... you guys are never gonna figure it out hahahahha

In many, many ways, Yin is hidden to the cerebral-centric human. We may say water is Yin,...but really, water is just an early stage of Yang Form returning to Yin formlessness. Actually, from my point of view, Light is the best teacher of Tao,...and as nothing about us is not Light, it's quite useful.

yin and yang are indeed found in all things. i think instead of classifying this thing "yin" and that thing "yang" its more beneficial to say that a thing is yin because _______ and yang because ________.

if you are comparing directly water to ice for example, you would say that water is yang to ice's yin, or of course, in some ways, yin to ice's yang (hardness for example). in the case of fire one has a pretty clear yin/yang pair, but in most cases things go both ways. that is to say things always embody both, as you pointed out.

i used to look at things and say "oh thats yin" or "oh thats yang" which is good in the beginning... but now if i identify a yinness about something i look then for its yangness.

just 2c, a healthy reminder...

@ sloppy zhang: i see your points, i guess to me, its all about outgrowing techniques like that and becoming natural. if a person is sitting with a woman and theyre thinking "now im going to impress her with cocky comedy" or "now its time for this routine" i think there are levels beyond where they are at.

i can't speak for every woman who is looking for spiritual consort either, maybe some like em a little NLPish who knows. its a big world.

im no expert, what i said in response to immortal4life is just my impression (and experience)

Very cool info... Look forward to hearing what your teacher says...

me too!

also i officially agree with your take on siddhis. hahahaahha just so you know!

 

I'm not sure why this is though. Moving the chi through the body feels purifying and nourishing; that's all I really know about it.

 

So, I'm wondering what others can tell me about the "water path" orbit

 

?

 

i do that too. "the movement of the way is reversal"

i also circulate in both directions at once.

but i didn't chime in cause i don't know why i do it either. just for balance i guess.

Interesting .pdf! Thank you.

 

I had discovered this one.

 

AJNA / ZAI / PINEAL

om srija iva rutaya swaha

 

As well as another that is not mentioned.

youre welcome! i don't understand what you meant at the bottom there tho

But, if one perceives "light" in a Chakra, isn't that a form of energy? Do you think it is different (or a different frequency) than Qi/Prana?

i personally think light and qi are two different forms of energy.

the way i have been taught, the dan tiens and the 2nd, 4th, and 6th chakras overlap so they occupy the same physical space. in this way they are related closely, and i have been taught that the navel chakra is fire, and is the reservoir of vital energy, or qi. the heart in my system is water, and reservoir of emotional energy. (now i have to ask my teacher if emotional energy is qi or not! thanks guys ) and the pineal chakra is air and is the reservoir of light, so now i have good questions for my kuji-in teacher. his phone is broken so i can't sort it out tonight but i will hopefully tell you what he says when he calls me w his new number. anyway thats none of your business! hahaahah

and btw i am just throwing my 2 cents around like its 5 bucks because i work with these systems. i am in no way claiming to be correct. i am not an authority in these matters, i am just a student

But, there are very powerful ways to do this, but it is not through meditation on the physical points of the Chakras... If one wants to influence a chakra in the hopes of opening it, the best way is to meditate on the spiritual principle that each chakra represents.

again good sir i do agree with you, although... theres nothing really wrong with meditating on it in Any way if you ask me. when i do a chakra hand seal meditation set i will use colorful visualizations, feeling the physical sensations at the point in question for "charge" (i know light doesnt have charge but lets use that word for its accurate descriptiveness of the feeling), mantra, mudra, and meditation on the philosophical concept in question.

i will say that for me, the philosophy is paramount. mudras, mantras, mandalas and visualizations are all vehicles to realize and internalize the aspect of consciousness embodied by that center. but i will also say that measuring progress of ones growth can be done by seeing how bright the chakras glow in the minds eye when they are "imagined" or dwelt upon, and also if there is a subtle "full" feeling that i called charge up there because it feels like skin in a sunbeam, like its being subjected to energies of varying kinds, light and other radiations. these are secondary effects to the consciousness, or signposts along the way, but they are valid indicators in my opinion

i have included a PDF file in this post. it is my own notes on kuji-in, most of which from francois lepines kuji-in trilogy and some from the teacher who guides my personal kuji-in practice. if it matters to you particular types, hes a 10th dan akijutsu master w foundation in mikkyo and christianity.

notes on chakra hand seals (kuji-in).pdf

It's not that it's too personal. I just don't see the point in sharing about personal, visceral experiences. That is what most people seem to be focusing on when they speak of Kundalini. Someone has a blissful or frightening tingly experience and the first thing they want to do is claim a kundalini awakening. When I hear people claim to have awakened Kundalini, they cite physical manifestations and experiences to prove those claims. So what? I have had alot of kundalini experiences and I have had alot of Qi phenomena experiences. I have had alot of religious experiences. I've had epiphanies etc.. Big deal.

Experiences are just that - experiences. Everyone has them. They don't necessarily mean anything. But this is especially true when it comes to Kundalini "Awakenings" because of all the baggage attached to that term. I get very suspicious of anyone who boldly claims... (ahem) "I have awakened my Kundalini" just those kinds of statements IMO, cancel out any awakening just by the fact that someone feels they can take credit for it. It is like saying, "I have achieved Enlightenement." It is a very crass and crude thing to do. So, I don't think you will ever hear me say anything like that, because I believe that enlightenment if it even exists is simply a process and it's a process that everyone is having and to make comparisons like that is antithetical to any enlightenment. On the flipside, everyone has Kundalini in some state of awakening. Just as everyone has Qi. Without it we would be dead. If you are alive, you are having a kundalini experience and you are having an awakening.

 

For me, the only real proof of kundalini awakening is the level of someone's emotional and psychological maturity. This is also lost in modern kundalini hype. Kundalini is not just an energy, it is the psycholigical and spiritual core of human beings. Any energy manifestations are only side effects. They are karmic attachments being released. That is all. Everyone has karmic attachments. So, when someone has an energetic experience related to kundalini and takes credit for it like it is some badge of honor is equivalent to taking credit for having just taken a dump. It's just the natural process of releasing crap.

hear hear sir i vouch for all that

very well put

i am not a practitioner of kundalini anything but i will use the old logic mixed with a little of the old common sense to see that you are surely correct