Master Logray

Hi apdo, understand you are from Egypt. Is there any similar system in the Egyptian culture as Taoist Nei Dan?

The training of Xing (approximately - Mind) has to be carried out both within meditation AND in the daily dealings in the outside world. Otherwise the foundation is not stable and progress is slow. The high mountain/cave is only for almost the final stage. Historically some Taoists started their training in brothels. Using emptied mind as a tool to deal with emotional problems, is common nowadays, especially with pseudo-Buddhist teaching. From Taoist standpoint, emptied mind is more a goal. To achieve this state of mind, one needs to deal with emotions, body sensations like sex urges plus own thinkings/beliefs.

Neidanists' endpoint is to become an immortal, which is not necessarily formless. In modern terms (movie and TV), they are working on self-transformation to become a meta-human or mutant. The fetus is only half way. In the end, the immortal can vaporize and re-appear anytime. It is more similar to the so-called rainbow body of Tibetan. An Immortal needs 2 criteria - enlightenment + body transformation, together.

Nocturnal emission is not the only problem. When one progresses in cultivation, the sex urge creates a much bigger problem than normal persons. During higher stages of cultivation/meditation, improper thoughts on sex, anger, fear.... not only erases years of hard work, but also severely damage the health. It is the reason for clearing the mind.

Half Lotus is inherently imbalanced and not so stable than full Lotus. The tradition teaching is that once your Chi is moving correctly, the muscles and tendons will soften and full lotus becomes possible or much easier. However nowadays teachers tend to let students adopt all kinds of poses, full lotus, half, or easy, or even sitting on chair, leaning, lying down etc. The rationale is that it is no point to struggle to achieve full lotus when there are more important objectives like stilling the mind.

@Taoist Priest Taoism is full of references to directions like in the Yi Jing, the Bagua and so on. The north is associated with water, cold; the south is hot and fire. However, being in Australia, all directions are reversed, the meanings attached to the directions are reversed too. There are 2 types of treatment, one is treat Australia as if in the northern hemisphere, another is to re-draw the Bagua completely to reflect the new environment. From your experience, which is the better way?

@arthur I answered Wu style is better, on a technical comparison. But if your question is which style you are going to follow, then my answer would be the most popular one in your area, provided it is not too substandard. Taichi cannot be learned from online alone, so students need personal instruction from teacher, and other students to practise and exchange. It is easier to get materials (most of the things may not be on the internet) and to avoid the teacher going out of business, retire etc which would could force you to start another style or teacher from scratch.

Wu style got more internal movements, more exact, so is better for beginners in Neigung. It was highly recommended by a western Neigung master who I forgot his name. Or Xing Yi is also a good choice, as they are most renowned in standing stance, which is already Neigung.

Energetic arts are mostly systems, and slow to establish and change. It is not easy to take in something from outside and replace something within.

May be it is your condition, even if excluding those still live a medieval life, the big majority does not, or having very limited exposure on internet, not to mention distance learning. And I am already living in Asia.

He is talking about learning, not getting distance healing.

If human Sifu is required, instead of online courses, there is usually not many to choose from, taking into account the distance, affordability, timing etc. It is better to provide the names of those Sifu/lineages and asks for opinion from the internet, not the other way round.

Then most religions have these 4 aspects. But we can't say all of them are the same.

Very well said. To simplify, Buddhism is all about mind, while Taoism is about mind/body(or energy) in varying proportions.

Concentrating on air in/out of nose would lead to high blood pressure.

Then do standing poses, you won't fall into deep trance.

Then don't do any mind related meditation for the time being. Those purely body related ones like breathing control would be okay?

Internal training in Taoism requires stilling the body and the mind, the longer the better. Having a lot of money and power is only useful under normal living.

Cultivators in the East can practice openly and freely. While in the West and Middle East, it is against the current religion?

Very interesting and useful experience, what sort of meditation is that, active or passive? Usually such special abilities are not very welcomed because firstly they make you deviate from your path as you said. There is another concern of using up one's Chi if doing it frequently. They are quite useful as confirmation or as sign of progress. One of the problems of special abilities is that the person cannot control it, as appear in many movies and TV.

If I got special powers, why would setting fire any use even in old days. Some form of healing power would be more useful and welcomed, plus financially rewarding.

In old days they use phosphorous or similar chemicals.

In the initial level, it is the case. After a certain level, even if some "secrets" are obtained, they could be no use or even harmful to practitioners in another school. The so-called secrets are something inside a system. They might need enhancers or counter actions to make it work. Unless one belongs to a similar school, otherwise these "secrets" are for reference only.

It is still more or less the case in Chinese communities except China itself. Perhaps a feature of an decentralized religion. Buddhist temples are a bit different. They often house monks i.e. monasteries plus temple functions. Having a bigger size, there are more considerations in the location.

For Taoist, most temples start from little. They could be everywhere and anywhere. Some of them grow and most perished. It is different from other religions as there is no Taoist Church, which undertakes where and when to build a temple and to coordinate the locations. Most temples are independent from one another. Impoverished areas do get temples, a lot of them too. Temples could be small or even sometimes unmanned and close to each other. The reason for the proliferation of temples/shrines is that Taoist religion is primarily about interacting with divinity. It may have be lost for other religions, but not Taoism. Then how to know if a particular temple has the patron of divinity? Whatever you asked for is granted, then it is considered a efficacious temple. People will flock there. A rich person might want to build a temple somewhere, but if this temple cannot provide this "service", it would be an empty one. Taoism is polytheism, which explains the proliferation and competition between temples. If you want to know if Taoist leans on money, they do, a lot. But location of temple has nothing to do with it. In most cases, it is the good temples that attracts the money and people.