Master Logray

It is common for ancient texts to have purported multiple purposes and meanings, like philosophical, life guidance, governing a country and as cultivation guide. My own understanding is limited. So I gather some thoughts from a book called DDJ Handout, Tips and empirical guide, more a cultivator guide. *** Scholars and crafts learning treasures associating with masters and knowledgeable friends. Knowing more, then inspiration comes, smartness and skills appear. You know more, thus find more areas for applying the knowledge. Cultivating for Tao is the opposite, if one read through many classics, knowing the true meaning and backgrounds, but forget to looking within and staying within, then knowledge becomes wider but one's Shen is disrupted. You learn more, the Tao is less. If it is for long, then the Taichi disappears. So Tao seekers should work like peeling bananas skins, getting less and less until emptiness. In the end even the emptiness is to be discarded. Then one obtains the Tao..... For Tao cultivators, if you see knowledge growing day by day instead of reducing day by day, then the mind is dim and not condensed. The only way is to practice and forget, forgetting and practising, then it won't be Tao's obstacle. If your memory is good and always nagging you with details, then it is worrisome. So the task is to destroy until there is nothing, reaching the end of nature. Only then something will arise from nothing, then it is the Real. All the extra abilities thus come. These are from cultivators' viewpoint of the DDJ. I would like to point out that this view has a deeper explanation. That is, when emptiness is achieved. It is not the end of story. Only when there is nothing, something (or Cosmic Energy, Primordial Force, genuine Yang Chi) will arise. It is in line with YiJing when the Yin is fully reached, then a weak seed of Yang will appear. And cultivators must grasp the opportunity to "collect medicine" to form the Elixir. So the emoji You Don't Know is the correct approach.

The belief of reincarnation/coming back again is very common everywhere over the history, worldwide. China Taoism and folk religions believe in it. But it is the Buddhist that explains reincarnation as 1. a system 2. a mandatory process 3. a continuous process, previous lives affect future lives 4. its working based on Karma, or "tendencies" in modern explanation. While the Taoist/Folk religion believe that reincarnation is optional. It timing and way is sometimes and somehow self-controlled. There is hell court to enforce punishments before jumping into another life. So sometimes the reincarnated soul is given a clean slate instead of perpetually affected by karma in many previous cycles. In fact the Path to Immortalship i.e. internal alchemy is contrary to a rigid reincarnation system.

Eating in China is not so straight forward. Many farmers, food manufacturers, restaurants customarily use chemicals to make food and fruits sweeter, keeping longer, look better, resemble expensive ones. But they are not multinational corporation that has laboratories, chemists, albeit doing the same thing in much safer ways. They are normal people making use of easily available "resources and technologies" without thinking of the consequences. This is the most dangerous aspect than the environmental heavy metal contamination or unhygienic preparation of food or fake foods. The problem is more serious when it is "upsteam". The raw ingredients are not safe. So even reputable restaurants and 5 stars hotels won't know its food is not right. The latest news is that tanks used for carrying chemicals are used to carry edible oils without prior cleansing, despite regulations and check. There are soulless food because there are soulless people.

I prefer to use the word Shedding instead of reduction/reducing. It is closer to the meaning of "損"，which generally also has a meaning of losing/damage too. The process is Shedding, while the end result is the reduction of something. To achieve the Tao, we better to shed the knowledge, wisdom, smartness, calculations as in other DDJ chapters mentioned above. Peeling off layers and layers of external coatings, then we can see the within the true meaning the real world. It is a continuous process.

I view Enlightenment is more a peep into the back end process of life/universe. From the viewpoint of a cultivator, haphazard Enlightenment is not so useful as anyone can believe in it, without actually experience it. It is same as belief systems or religions - believe. And in modern days we can mimic Enlightenment by drugs, electrical stimulation, hypnosis or VR. The important point is whether a person can reach a state of Enlightenment regularly and consistently, thereby able to explore, obtain insight, experiences and energies, or communicate with different beings. This is why cultivation is absolutely necessary, not a one-off glimpse to the other side. I am saying this because I read a survey on the winners of big lotteries in the USA. Most of them are actually worse off after a period of time when they use up all their wealth. It is those who already have money management skills and habits that actually maintain their wealth.

There are 2 hurdles. Translation from ancient to modern Chinese and from modern Chinese to English. And meanings for some of the texts were not universally agreed even from centuries ago like Zhuang Zhi, the achieved person's breath is to the heel.

Technically Neidan is the system to achieve reaching the Tao. It is not an end by itself. If you talk about theology, Taoist goals are very modest. At most they claim to produce super humans, or meta human in modern or movie terms. They are far from universe creator level. The mutated or morphed humans are no comparison against the inborn or pure blood deities, whatever the names are. While Buddhists view the growth of a spirit in innumerable cycles, Taoist inner alchemy expects some results within this life and to have proof of it on the body, though it doesn't mean everyone reaching the heavenly immortal level. By the way, the term Neigong has only been coined less than 100 years ago by a fiction writer. Its original meaning was to differentiate from the external body systems. Normally Neigong are ancillary and supplementary exercises of martial arts, comprising multitude of exercises and massages etc. But nowadays, sometimes it has become a marketing ploy as mentioned by Taoist Text. There are XXYYZZ Neigongs to suit everyone and every purposes.

I forgot what was discussed since it was so long. There are different type of Chineses. E.g. the southern ones like Hokkien and Cantonese significantly depend on tones to differentiate different words. Mandarin has 4 tones, Hokkien has 8, Cantonese 9. A more tonal language is very strict on tones otherwise it becomes another word. So it is not very possible to use intonation to add to the sentiment or meaning.

Wang Li Ping was born in 1949. During his teenage and youth days, China's political environment was very much against Taoist and religion and climax in Cultural Revolution. So it is natural to wonder where he got his teachings from. His own teaching was controversial in China, according to Wiki.

The Yin Devil is usually no problem for normal people when their mind are cluttered by thousand and one things. One more devil won't cause too much additional harm. But for cultivators, especially higher level ones, when their minds are comparatively clearer, the Yin Devil is not easy to deal with. They are somewhat part of yourself. Cultivators need great steadiness naturally, but also require sound body and mind, and a proper environment. When a person is in distress, then the attack is vicious. There is another condition when the "real" devils i.e. external ones, affect you via the Yin Devil, instead of things like flying objects in the exorcist movies..

Both and many other types. e.g. dark parts of our Psyche has a name, Yin Devil. It lurks in the sub-consciousness, can act on its own or triggered by feelings and events, very difficult to clear. The lesser called Yang Devil are those rogue deities and beings that befriend or harm humans. These are technically external species (or even aliens) that has a life of their own. Nothing to do with psyche. As to the "fallen" divine beings, there is an interesting thing in Taoism. It is the reverse or "rising" to-be-divine beings. Humans have alchemy to become Immortals which is semi-divine being. Animals can also achieve human form or even to become Immortals if they cultivate long enough. Snakes, turtles, very old fishes, foxes, bats are said to have this ability. So if someone catches a very big and old fish, they would let it go as believe it could have some sentient though not really immortal. But such happening is extremely rare.

Taoism cultivation is manifold. The most common form is in fact accessing the mind through the body. Qigong/Neigong are this type - external body movements. Although the stress is for both mind and body to grow together, the earlier phases are more body centric as it is far easier, faster and wield immediate benefits, and importantly, easier to hold on to the interests of the students. And in the contemporary context, working through the body is more neutral, just like Hatha Yoga, without the person engage too much in Taoist philosophical and religious teachings, which enable people in other beliefs to follow e.g. Christians and Muslims, instead of asking them to worship different deities.

This is a yes/no question. The proper question is how much, how far can a person progresses without teacher. If the objective is 5% Neidan, then it may be workable, anyhow without a teacher doesn't mean absolutely no teaching or wait for strike of lightning type. Then one would ask why 5% is acceptable. It is actually what is happening in the world. When we set out to make money, would we aim for being the top richest man in the world? If we swim, do we aim for winning an Olympic medal? A certain result is good for almost everyone.

Being spiritual would lessen the importance of the body and associated needs. Then sexual needs, gender change would not be that necessary comparing with general population.

你的post並沒有討論合宗明道集，而是研究作者。 爲何不直接討論大江西派呢？

I am dealing with translation and formating, some background first. Source, internet. "Zhuangzi": "Yan Hui said: The limbs are dropped, the intelligence is deposed, and the body is separated from the body to know. It is the same as Datong (great access). This is called sitting and forgetting." Those who sit and forget forget their bodies externally and forget their hearts internally. Datong, the great road of righteousness, can be combined with the great road if you can sit and forget. According to Taoist practice, we should forget to know and forget in advance. Tang Dynasty． Sima Chengzhen wrote a volume of the monograph "Zuowang Lun". If you want to cultivate the great road, you must first have no intention, so there is a saying that "no intention is the way." No mind means that there is no "shadow mind of six worldly conditions". If there is no mind, then the wonderful and true mind will manifest itself and take refuge in "the death of the heart and the resurrection of the spirit". This is how we begin to “be the same as Datong.” If you want to achieve without heart, you should forget your mind, that is, you will get rid of seeing, hearing, and awareness, and there will be no need for intelligent thinking. Zhuangzi's method of sitting and forgetting is not fully revealed in Zhuangzi's books, but "Zhuangzi. "Qiwu Lun" has already described the main end of it. The so-called sitting and forgetting has clearly pointed out that the posture is not standing or lying down, but sitting. This sitting posture is neither cross-legged nor flat, but "sitting with concealment".

For reading or practising?

It is not long ago there was a discussion that the forum lacks Taoist or cultivator posts. Then we have someone like this member who is very interested in such matters coming up. The result is not what most imagined. This world is interesting. It gives you what you want but in a way not expected.

My teacher said, prolonged meditation itself will change a person's character to be more mild, more understanding, more peaceful. May be he is not entirely correct.

WLP stands a lot? They are using standing as the base? not sitting? Standing cannot go deep enough and while it is useful to kick start as you say.

How so? Any more info?

Zen doesn't improve the body, so are some Taoist practices in the early stage. When your body ages, maintain a full lotus could be giving harmful effects. Not only the knee, but the lower back too. In Taoist training, the person will easily snap into place when the Chi comes. The problem is the long period before getting the real Chi. Damages could have been done. For older people especially who starts middle aged, it is better to take it easy, or even easier along the way. Anyhow your objective is on the mind, why struggle in pain for decades.

It doesn't matter if doing something has a zero chance of success, as long as it is not a all or nothing type. If one trains to be the richest man on earth, then even a 1/10000 success is quite a big sum of money. A 10% success rate will make most people envy.

Modern world, it is unavoidable. The initial step of concentrating on LDT has been a great hurdle for many people.

The common explanation is, when the LDT is full, it starts to flow down the channel and start orbiting on its own. Most teachers would tell you that. It is certainly true. But then why MCO is regarded as Yau Wei Gong (Doing Something) instead of Wu Wei Gong? If Chi can do everything by itself, safe and sound and smooth? Because the person has to concentrate on the LDT to gather and build up Chi, start the firing trigger, keep the Chi running along the proper channel (actually it is a trunk road with many junctions), don't omit sections (common), stopping in the journey (the 3 passes, the bathing points), determine when to go again or start its downward journey, adjust the speed etc. There is not much Wu Wei left, at most just don't force things. Given the involvement of the conscious mind, WuLiu MCO can hardly even be classified as meditation when this term generally refers stilling the mind and doing as little as possible. It is more similar to Qigong or even Hatha Yoga where a lot of interventions are needed.