manitou

When your body is not aligned, The inner power will not come. When you are not tranquil within, Your mind will not be ordered. Align your body, assist the inner power, Then it will gradually come in its own.

I think the most poignant thing about this chapter is the admonition to remain humble after victory has been achieved. This applies not only to a good general but to a good person as well. I'm looking at a copy of Lin Yutang's chapter 30, so I'll use him to make the point, as I've got him on my lap.... Therefore a good general effects his purpose and stops. He dares not rely upon the strength of arms; Effects his purpose and does not glory in it; Effects his purpose and does not boast of it; Effects his purpose and does not take pride in it; Effects his purpose as a regrettable necessity; Effects his purpose but does not love violence. All of this can be applied to us individually. As Don Juan constantly admonishes Castaneda, "don't indulge in anything once you've done it". This is very difficult to do, if we're honest with ourselves. This goes very much to our ego naturally wanting to revel in our success. Perhaps to replay it over and over in our minds, to actually find ourselves talking out loud to ourselves about it when we're driving on the freeway. Not boasting of it? Whoa. Are there that many of us actually capable of walking away from a moment of great success and not boasting just a little? But to retain the power of the Tao is to keep it within; this is also the message from don Juan; the more we talk about it, the more the power is robbed from it. We seem to receive the most benefit from anything if we keep it to ourselves and not boast of anything. It is understandable that the Taoist general would see his purpose as regrettable. After all, he would understand the Oneness of all of nature, and therefore knowing that it is actually part of himself that he is having to kill off. Naturally this would be distressing to him.

I like this very much. First secure yourself, then wait for the enemy to be in the right position. It takes much self discipline to wait. I think thoughts like this make it attractive to many businessmen who are serious about winning as well. It is my understanding that our current leadership is very familiar with this tome. I see our administration waiting things out, long after people are hollering about his dithering. When all pieces were in place, e.g. the United Nations resolutions, the action was swift and deadly and on target. The best part of all of this is that we won't get stuck with the price tag like we always do. It'll be a shared expense.

CHAPTER FOUR: Clear! as though right by your side. Vague! as though it will not be attained. Indescribable! as though beyond the limitless. The test of this is not far off: Daily we make use of its inner power. The Way is what infuses the body, Yet people are unable to fix it in place. It goes forth but does not return, It comes back but does not stay. Silent! none can hear its sound. Suddenly stopping! it abides within the mind. Obscure! we do not see its form. Surging forth! it arises with us. We do not see its form, We do not hear its sound, Yet we can perceive an order to its accomplishments. We call it "the Way." CHAPTER 5 The Way has no fixed position; It abides within the excellent mind. When the mind is tranquil and the vital breath is regular, The Way can thereby be halted. That Way is not distant from us; When people attain it they are sustained That Way is not separated from us; When people accord with it they are harmonious. Therefore: Concentrated! as though you could be roped together with it. Indiscernible! as though beyond all locations. The true state of that Way: How could it be conceived of and pronounced upon? Cultivate your mind, make your thoughts tranquil, And the Way can thereby be attained.

Okay, I've got you now. Do you think this has anything to do with kundalini activity? My kundalini heat often sits in the back of my head and projects backward; or sometimes it's in my lower back or shoulder blades, also projecting outward. It seems to have already gone up the front side, it took several years. Now it's going down the back. With my new-age shamanic background (Castaneda) there is great emphasis placed on stopping the inner dialogue within the mind. It is by stopping the inner dialogue that we can be mindful of our impeccability at any given moment. This sounds very much like you are talking about, perhaps a merger of the two? Or am I way off base?

Zero and everyone else - I too have spent a lot of winter hours on TTB's. But spring is coming - there is art to be painted, music to be played. I probably won't be around as much either - but I sure identify with your feelings of comradarie on this site. I'm not one who goes through life toting a lot of friends along - but the ones I make I like to keep. And it seems like we talk soul to soul here. Please know that every single one of you is in my heart.

CHAPTER 12 The numinous (mind): no one knows its limit; It intuitively knows the myriad things. Hold it within you, do not let it waver. To not disrupt your senses with external things, To not disrupt your mind with your senses: This is called 'grasping it within you'. CHAPTER 13 There is a numinous (mind) naturally residing within; One moment it goes, the next it comes. And no one is able to conceive of it. If you loose it you are inevitably disordered; If you attain it you are inevitably well ordered. Diligently clean out its lodging place And its vital essence will naturally arrive. Still your attempts to imagine and conceive of it. Relax your efforts to reflect on and control it. Be reverent and diligent And its vital essence will naturally stabilize. Grasp it and don't let go Then the eyes and ears won't overflow And the mind will have nothing else to seek. When a properly aligned mind resides within you, the myriad things will be seen in their proper perspective.

I think another way to see it is that the Tao, the Essence, grows on its own when it sees a channel. 'Learning life's lessons' sort of insinuates a fatherly figure tending his children and directing the whole thing from the sidelines. Instead, it seems to be an evolution that spirals upward, going through those who have taken the time to prepare themselves for this infusion of understanding of how life actually works.

This is an interesting quote. Could you expand on your thinking here?

Re chapter 12 - the numinous mind intuitively knows the myriad things because it is the myriad things. When we see the essence because we've stopped the inner dialogue and can triangulate what we see, this we should not doubt; we should not be disrupted by things we see or hear which may show otherwise. In my experience, conventional wisdom is generally wrong. Re chapter 13 - The dweller within likes a clean lodging place. It's our job to keep the dwelling clean - to keep our thoughts right where we want them, not merely swimming around in a menagerie of a thought circus. It's our job to clear out the unwanted old habits and impressions that rule our less than desirable behavior today. When this has been done, the essence can shine up through us. It also seems to be warning us to Let it happen, rather than Make it happen. When it says "Still your attempts to imagine and conceive of it", it's as though it's talking to us directly! How often on this forum we try to imagine and conceive of it; although admittedly it's wonderful talking with others who are trying to imagine and conceive of it. But this goes back to not casting out so hard that we're scaring the fish away. And the mind will have nothing else to seek: what a beautiful understanding. It seems that our happiness, our wellbeing, is integrally tied up with our capacity for gratitude. If we are constantly looking for Something Else, looking to move Somewhere Else, wishing we were living with Someone Else - then the piece of heart cannot be found. If we find a way to start right where we are, right now - and be grateful for that which is in front of us - what a wonderful place to start. It's the essence of Being Here Now, removing all the cogitation and projection. This is to tap into the Essence; it's our choice entirely.

Absolutely. The place from which the One can be realized is only found with the cessation of internal dialogue. This is a very important part of the Castaneda path as well. Many years of meditation practice makes it possible to cease the dialogue; it can be done nearly instantaneously.

I knew a thief once that stole money for a period of time and then couldn't stand it any longer. He returned the money and told everyone involved that he had done it. He didn't have to, he could have kept his mouth shut and no one would have known the difference. His thieving ways were a product of a horrible background, and he just slipped up; too much opportunity. I think the amount of character the thief in this case showed was pretty awesome, actually.

How very dual of you.

Very shamanic here. Visualizing skeletons is wonderful. I see us all as skinwalkers. The wonderful thing about books like this is that they can be reread at various phases of our development and it's as though we're reading a totally different book because we are a different being every time we read it. The great ones are like that.

I've been meditating and studying the TTC for so many years, it's more internalized than anything else now. I immediately see what is Not of the Tao. Does that make any sense at all?

A well thought out conclusion, Otis. You've described the parts that we are left to deal with. Personally, I had to do it through a breakdown, but they're actually kind of wonderful because it gives a whole new place to start.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to attain Wholeness of Character?

Otis, that entire video gave me the chills. I loved it. It spoke to the part of me that knows that The Way underlies everything; and that every once in a while a light-keeper comes along to further the Way. We are lightkeepers here. There is something so inherently good in Life, if we CHOOSE to look at life this way. I love your spirit, my friend. 'You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.'

Not coming up through any of the formal Chinese disciplines, could someone please explain to me what internal alchemy actually is? I have gotten the idea from reading posts on this thread and others that it is a meditation which actually produces physical changes within the body, which will enhance the body in different ways, all good, apparently. Longevity, vitality, etc. I'm wondering if there's any analogy at all here to the things that happen to people advanced on the new age shamanic path (Castaneda). I have experienced much improved health, vitality, and a pretty good weight loss without really trying. Also, is there any connection, do you think, to the concept that healers themselves receive the benefit of the healings they perform? I wonder if the two somehow act in concert. It just seems like there are so many equivalents within different disciplines. Almost like the poles of a teepee all coming together at the top.

My darling Marbles - you are so much more learned about such things, which concept is which, what the Buddhists say, what the Taoists say. I can only speak from direct experience; the Sage cannot be the Sage unless he has learned to sidestep, transcend, submit, knock down....the Ego. But not the whole ego, only the parts that keep one from seeing clearly. The jealousy, the anger, the arrogance, the know-it-allness, the pride, the aggressiveness, sarcasm....all those things that have evolved within the individual to inhibit the clarity of vision. If one is standing on one of those stumps thinking they're at the bottom, they're just not seeing clearly. I've always been a little surprised that the TTC doesn't give a little more information on exactly how to become the Sage. In our Nei-Yeh discussions the next few chapters will have very meaty stuff on just that.

I think it's a no-brainer to give the kid back his money if he asked for it, you then knowing it was his birthday money. But the real question is, what to do if no one comes forward? I would use the Reasonable Man standard on that. I would hang on to the money for a few days, maybe a week - maybe if there's a lost and found department at the place where the money was found, to let them know that a quantity of money had been lost. If someone comes forward with the right quantity lost, then I'd gladly give it to them. I would do whatever it took to make my soul feel okay about keeping the money, if that's the way it turned out. Our soul is the most important thing in the world to us, why screw around with a mere 200 bucks? Or a mere million bucks? It doesn't matter. What matters is keeping our insides clean so that our vision remains clean. If one has to go through a whole series of rationalizations to keep the money, then the real answer lies underneath the rationalizations.

This is just about the best piece of advice I've heard on this website.

Hi Brawny - I'd go along with Marbles on this one. Slow down a bit, or you'll miss it. In Taoism, it's called 'casting out so hard you scare the fish away.' Just for starters, yes, everything is Tao. Your dog is a 4-legged. You are a 2-legged. Trees are 1-leggeds. We are all one. It all has consciousness, even rocks. Getting them to respond quickly might take a while, though. The Sage in the Tao Te Ching is your model. A lot would be gained by reading not only one translation of the TTC, but maybe two or three. You will be able to triangulate a lot of your own questions. It sounds to me like your time for pounding knowledge into your brain has pretty much run its course on all this. It may be time to switch over to the experiential side. That's the 'going in' process. My advice to someone who has all the intellectual knowledge he needs to understand all this, such as you, would be to assume you have every character defect you can think of; selfishness, arrogance, pride, jealousy, the list goes much further. Your mission at that point is to determine to what extent you possess them. It can be done real simply by merely starting the introspection process by going over your day every night. Look back and see where you could have been less arrogant, less prideful, less jealous....that sort of thing. Once your psyche accepts the possibility that it may have a few malfunctions, the process will take on a life of its own and you'll find that Life will bring to you exactly what you need, over and over again, until the lesson is learned. It's really a lifelong thing. Try relaxing by a stream or go lay face down on the grass. Give your psyche time to process the incredible amount of information you've learned. Give yourself a break for a while. That's when the understandings will start to clink into place. Right now, your chunks of understanding are hovering around you and haven't found their rightful position yet. Just LET it happen, don't try to MAKE it happen. You can't make it happen. That's the nature of the Tao. You've already invited her in. Let her do the rest.

Maybe ego was developed from birth and before as a self-protecting mechanism, a framework for the human personality or expression. At some point in time a baby will flinch if something is coming at him. Maybe this is the onset of the growth of ego. I liken it to growing a tomato plant. It needs a structure to hold it up, a cone of support. Maybe this is what the ego is for. There's no doubt we need it, even if just to avoid oncoming traffic. The structure apparently must be there for self-preservation. But this brings up the notion of the concept of Half and Half; this is the ox that we must ride. Not too little, not too much. The delicate balancing act of the Tao; or maybe a butterfly landing on a bubble. Character defects such as narcissism, selfishness, arrogance, the 'yang' movers, serve to increase the structure so that the beginnings can no longer be seen. This is why inner work has to be done to get to the place of Sight. The opposite defects, the other side of the coin, are the victim personalities, the ones feeling sorry for themselves and wearing this like a shield as well - the yin defects. Both sides of the coin serve to obfuscate our view of the original Intent. My thought is that it's our responsibility to do the internal housecleaning from the inside out, to make sure that ego stays within a minimal perspective so that vision can be achieved.

PERFECT, Marbles!! Wu-wei has nothing to do with laziness. Wu-wei is performed when the performer can See way down into the situation because he understands his own human nature to the bone. When he understands his own human nature to the bone, he understands the human nature of others to the bone. It is from this perspective that Wu-Wei must be achieved. Because he can see the problem so deeply and sees how it is going to play out, the performer can sometimes tweak the situation at a very deep level to see it play out slightly differently down the road. (This is impossible to explain, I'm not doing it very well!) The Do-Nothing (wu-wei) aspect of this is to remove one's self (not necessarily physically at all) from the dynamic that's occurring. It's as though you were juggling a bunch of stuff and then decided to quit juggling. Everything stops its motion, lays on the ground, and the performer can see what is actually there. After that point, the wu-wei performer lets all further dynamics of the situation come to him; he is not the protagonist in any fashion, but instead he meets all dynamics with kindness, honesty, and compassion (that one was for you, Marbles). Some would call it love. This, in my opinion, is absolute sorcery. The Universe will ultimately bring around the perfect conclusion once the talking monkeys stop trying to manipulate the outcome.