Master Logray

This was exactly one of the arguments between Taoist and Buddhist in the old days. If a person is enlightened, then why he is still living? For the classical Taoist view, self-realization/enlightenment is only a midway step, though necessary. The end game is to transform into another being, not only mind but also physically. My own thinking is that, each of us is so different. They would choose vastly different paths after enlightened. It is not right to suppose everyone would adopt the same path.

All those videos are doubtful as there are just too many fakes and simply not scientific. Nowadays if journalists still happen to be interested in emitting Chi, they would be having a stage magician around during the performance. In the old days researchers observe themselves. The conclusion is they were easily tricked. China did have more scientific studies. They tried to measure the effect of off site Chi emission in killing cancer cells, under laboratory condition. This kind of research is far more trustworthy in terms of the context.

These "Systems" were not intended for you, not intended to be of any merit to you - a specially inclined person 1000 or 2000 years later. They have their usefulness or meanings for a different audience. Just wonder why you say "why should I believe...", you are not obligated to believe in anything at all. You are free.

No spiritual teacher can totally escape from cultural preferences, otherwise they would have great difficulties to spread their messages. Deviations in sexual inclinations, either are disregarded, or treated as a sin. Looking for justifications in the many scriptures to prove the teachings can somehow be twisted is mostly futile. Even women is not considered equal, how would queer/LGBT etc be treated.

Indeed, it is what we set out to do.

It did. Tibet Buddhism is mixed with Bon.

If we approach the scriptures of religions, we can always find references to all types of issues, inequality being one of them. However the religions and the societies or even the culture may pay little attention to such. Inequality, unfortunately, is one. As in previous posts from different members, it is not a prominent nor explicit teaching of Taoism. The Chinese societies and religions pay scant attention to it, even up to today. Perhaps the idea of inequality stems from an equal citizenship. In the age of empires, who would dare to think of being equal to the kings and emperors. Confucianism divides the societies into strata, let say the teachers are so much above a person, only slightly below the father. No equality here. The Taoism influenced societies do appreciate fairness and justice which has an element of inequality. But the modern western concept of inequality is almost nonexistent in the 2000 years. As China is under communist rule, Communism does stress on equality. Perhaps @Mig can look into communist equality, which is now more relevant than a few writings in the scriptures.

I think standing poses are the fastest, or those simple repetitive exercises. They are shortcuts for the initial stage. The choice of martial arts is very personal.

Mixing is a complicated thing. For your case, Zen is passive and emptiness, while breathing through points and chakras is micro breathing management. They could offset each other or confuse the subconscious. In general all cultivation works are the slower the better.

Just beware of mixing methods from different systems.

Reduce everything strenuous, whether it is physical/mental/emotional/sexual/spiritual..... All kinds of moving and standing exercises could only offer limited value if the outlay is not controlled. Sitting is better but most people cannot sit for 10 hours or more a day. Conserve the Jing/Chi/Shen is essential to progress.

Qigung is good but not really effective. The only way is to be constantly vigilant of your postures.

In the old days, no one cared much about inequality. Perhaps it was culture.

Inequality is a rather modern western concept. There are teachings in the Asian religions which mentions equality in one way or the other. But these are never the main directions. Inequality is still a minor issue today comparing with the more pressing issues in Asia.

I think these arts have the same or similar root, and going to the same end point. But the paths are very different. Just like a person walks/swims from Bombay to New York, another one takes the plane and the third one takes a ship. They would encounter totally different experiences and life learning. By the way, enlightenment is not the end point for Taoist cultivators. It is only an essential mid-point that must be mastered and maintained and make used for further endeavors.

The acutal alchemy in China was developed initially. The inner work was the later development. So they were named Outer Alchemy and Inner Alchemy (Neidan). I would say systems all have quite different goals. On paper every spiritual path strives for the same ending. It is why knowledgeable persons keep on preaching all paths are the same. To be practical, no one ever reaches the end and come back to publicly teach or write on internet. We are faced with a wide array of systems with different goals and methods. Mixing terms should be done very cautiously as you say. They can mean conflicting things in different scenarios.

Temples/Churches can be easily few hundred years old. What was the original situation on the choice of location, no one knows. 100 years ago a place can be impoverished, but it can be city centre now, 20 years later the place could be a slum. You are seeing the temples that SURVIVED! Don't forget religion is about supernatural. Temples oftenly develop from small shrines, small shrines develop from a piece of rock or a tree. There is always a divine/supernatural element in the development of a temple.

I have watched videos of self-defense classes. They are highly realistic. Weapons are used. 2 vs 1 or 3 vs 1. Sometimes the referee or the teacher will suddenly attack one of the combatants, also on uneven grounds etc.

You are right. Taichi players these days never prepare for a real fight, psychological and physically, no refinement of skills, no realistic and hard training. Even if there is someone who masters the "Taichi principles", this person cannot survive on a street level. Unfortunately so many people, including well-known cultivators believe that, with Taichi develops the Chi, then the real power will manifest and they can fight anyone. It makes me wonder their words on cultivation is reliable or not.

I have no idea. But I suppose they are confined to China towns. Their deities are totally unknown in western countries. Who would go to worship there? Furthermore Taoist don't really preach like other religions. They are rather passive and mostly serve the communities (not free).

I don't mind what you say. Just expressing my opinion which is Taoist is heavily involved in money, politics and power struggle. And clarify they have plenty of temples in low income areas. If you don't intend to write off the whole, then I do it for you. My teacher who is a famous cultivator, said the Taoist is corrupt and not as pious as Buddhist monks. One further info. In China temples can be manned by paid professionals who are not Taoist but put on the "uniforms".

The All True (QuanJan) faction, other than ZhengYi, is the largest in China. They are the religious and cultivation faction. Their founder Wang was invited to palace of the Jin Dynasty to preach and teach Taoism. Don't forget at that time the Jin occupied some Chinese soil and was the arch enemy. Wang's disciple Qiu, who is a very important figure in Taoism and cultivation, not only visited the Jin court, received emperor's commendations, helped in pacifying rebellions. And the most notable event was he traveled to the west to personally meet with Genghis Khan, promoting Taoism in the Mongolian empire. When Mongols invaded China, he mediated and saved life of many people. Genghis Kan highly respected him and named him as "Immortal" and made him the head of all Taoists within the Mongolian empire (not only China). He died 3 days before Genghis Khan did. These are true historical events happened around AD1160-1227. These 2 founders are very important in cultivation teachings. But their lives are highly political.

Taoism is probably the most diverse and immersive religion? in the world. There are so many diverse arms and many of the Taoist beliefs and practices immerse into every aspect of Chinese societies, namely fortune telling like Feng Shui, martial arts like Taichi, Chinese medicine, Food Therapy among others All these are followed by Buddhist, Christian, Muslims. There are Taichi courses in Christian church as well.

It is not true. In Hong Kong and Taiwan there are temples everywhere. Actually no temple is built in well-off areas except some historical ones. Hong Kong has many temple on upper stories of tall buildings. plus very small temples. Taiwan has more magnificent temples. China Taoist temples are now flourishing with money. They make a lot of money and the government subsidize for tourist sake. Temple is part of the "industries". China is all internal tourists. If you mean temples like Buddhist monasteries, have Taoist residing, then they are very rare. One of the main reasons is that ZhengYi Taoist is actually the majority. They can eat meat, raise family and live as normal persons. So living quarters is not that necessary. Cultivators don't have temple.

@thelerner and @freeform have excellent comments. A world hell-bent on breaking itself ? and being emotional about it ? Is the anxiety and despair emanating from a person's inner self, rather than as an opinion on the world itself. That must be found out and dealt with. To look at a wider context, in US people are having a bleak view on environment, equal rights, BLM, guns, Trump and so on. But billions of people right now are not the least concerned about such things. They have basic problems like daily threat of death, hunger, thirst, extreme poverty, torture, harsh suppression of basic human rights, ethnic/religious/identity cleansing, no medical facilities. They don't think the world is breaking as they are already living in a broken world.