opendao

it depends on the reason of such situation: it can be something innate, temporary sickness, age etc. There is a general way to balance it by practising Dao. Other ways sometimes can help, but they don't affect the root causes (real Yin and Yang), and all people can do is to balance what they already have. It's possible, through a special practice called zhuji - Building the Foundation. It's a set of methods in Neidan to prepare the body for getting more Yuan (innate) Qi. In Daoist circles people experience such things, but not so often as it might look after reading this forum )) The widespread idea that real Yang can be obtained by getting really Yin is a bit funny, because "fully Yin is a ghost, fully Yang is an immortal". So obviously people speak about different things: Yin-Yang in Daoism and in Chinese Medicine/Qigong. There is some relation, but... I really suggest to find out what is Yin and what is Yang in Daoism, before trying to affect their balance.

He does FaJing 發勁 )) It's impossible to explain it, the only way to understand it is to learn it from somebody who can do the same.

only for those who have never learnt liuhebafaquan (and other internal martial arts as well). Do you know LHBF's neigong, for example? So you compare only the choreography, it has no big sense. Elements are nothing, though even visible similarity can be very misleading. Principles are more important: bufa, shenfa etc. And it doesn't mean lhbf is "better" or "worse", it's just very different. And sometimes the difference is so big, so it's good to question ourselves what really distinguish Neijia, Internal styles, from numerous imitations forged in 20th century... Then LHBF will occupy a proper place in the history of Chinese martial arts, without illusions made by numerous evangelists like Moy.

it's really rare. Now it's possible for anyone to see who learnt what, comparing with modern masters. The performance is maybe the best video available, so consider it as a high standard of LHBF. As we see, those who think LHBF is a "mix of bagua, xinyi and taiji" are just wrong...

Good point. Sure, we must think critical, and doubts are our best friends on the way. But we don't have to believe in anything, as well as we don't have to accept anything as truth. What's good about Daoism, is that all such metaphysical concepts can be practically proved, and the results will be predictably the same for all practitioners. It's a science, with own laws, stages, technologies etc. This is the major difference between ancient Daoism and many other religions or spiritual ways: it works even if you don't believe in it But we also need to remember, that to neglect warnings made by masters of the past, respected by their results, is to look for disasters.

??? obviously not, not a gram of yang.

well, most people never learn... good luck in your "self mastery", but it would be better not to mislead others, it's bad for all, including yourself. Read at least some texts, if you have nobody to ask. "Pure yin" is a way opposite to Dao, there is no any doubt here. And it's not a starting point, because any human is partially Yin, partially Yang. About healing you also have no clue, how it works and when.

Time has another opinion. Any claims can be checked practically, so I can wait until yours become something more solid then just pessimistic complain on everything.

the comparison chart is by position, not by meaning or characters...

that's a hard question, because nowadays there are a lot of versions that are very far away from the originals of the arts. There are people who do any of them using physical power-Li, there are teachers who mix various styles and so on. But if we explore these arts to their roots, we'll see that the neigong is similar, fajing is similar, movements are different, and the approach to training is very different. They all come to the same top, but the path is not the same at all. Moreover, it can start at different points. Any ways, find at least one teacher who knows any of these internal systems and can fight, showing skills much above the average, then it really doesn't matter what is the name of the style he teaches

That's all very funny, and I doubt anybody sober can take such arguments seriously, but obviously, closing ears, eyes and mouth won't change anything: such practices are not important to obtain De and to attain Dao. It's easy to check, and easy to find detailed descriptions of life long experience (in Christianity, for example). Maybe that's why between ruists there is nobody even close to Huang Di or Fu Xi... Or consider Zhang Daoling or Wang Chongyang: do you really think people followed them because those Masters needed to survive and read DDJ as a "survival manual"? No sense.

yes, the risk with lucid dreaming is big, and there are a lot of new-age practices a la Castaneda, where the border between "lucid dreaming" and "out of the body experience" is very thin. In Daoism such things are not recommended, and moreover there are practices to stop any dreams.

Could you find anything similar to "ghost immortal" in other cultures?

funny, even on the image they have 分: http://ctext.org/photo.pl?if=en&node=11647 http://www.daoisopen.com/downloads/CC56.pdf seems more accurate. edit: link was wrong

right. I've just guessed why it was in your variant... In all traditional variants I have 分 is not used. Where did you take your source?

no, it's not, try to check the trad version of the character: 紛

I've copied it from dustybeijing's. It was a Guodyan version. Wang Bi: 塞其兌閉其門 etc

解其紛 is not about "discriminations", try to find a better translation (even in this thread there is some).

oh yeah, it changes everything So what exactly to do? Close left nostril first? Or release knots? Which knots? I wrote: it happens automatically, that's why it's more like a description. There is nothing to do, but you're right, it's only "for people who are capable of doing it". p.s. btw, I really suggest you to make a grammar analysis of the chapter, then probably you'll change your opinion about verbs. Phrases like 閉丌兌賽丌門 are not so straightforward here, and allow different translations.

seriously? the only one in the western academic community who knows about thousands of comments to Laozi, contemporary texts and use them in the translation / explanation? I don't think it's true. Many people do that, as far as I know. What they publish is another story. But in China it's a common thing to use every possible source. However very often it brings more confusion then clarity... Right, though it's obvious from DDJ itself. And the chapter is addressed to a person, who needs to "express Dao" without words (obviously not a newbie student) to rule the country (see chapters around to get the context). So the chapter explains WHAT has to be achieved by such a person to make it happen. But it says very little about HOW to do that, because at that level it just happens (wuwei, really). So it's more like a description, but not an instruction... That's why any continuous attempts to simply "sit in silence", and intentionally mimic the described state using mind or "shut mouth and nostrils" using funny devices, breath holding or fasting, such "inner work" gives no results, comparable to what Lao Zi defined as Dao. What's about 'noble man under heaven' who can rule without words? How many practitioners achieved that so we know about it? But such people can be found in the real life, and it confirms the message of Lao Zi. And next step of any serious research is to find such people and ask them how did they achieved Dao. Then it's possible to compare with texts again... Without practical, life examples of Dao attainment, all we can do is to believe and guess, which has no sense.

The chapter is not about inner work as you understand it... What is a method to cultivate Dao? It's described in DDJ in details, by the way.

yeah, usual situation If the chapter is so easy to crack, and "sit in silence" is enough to get "the unite mystery", then why there is no one who can achieve Dao this way? I mean Dao as described in DDJ, and not "shamanic path" of unknown origin. Same with De. Same with Wuwei.

as mentioned before, it's possible with _external_ help. No, it's not a case in Zhong Lü Chuan Dao Ji quoted above, read careful, it criticizes pseudo-Daoists first of all.

Well said, even if it's sad... The only reason TT lies about the text is not because he reads Hagakure too much, but because the very next paragraph in Zhong Lü Chuan Dao Ji exactly and in details describes "meditations" our "Quanzhen follower" is trying to promote aggressively, saying that "Neidan is a dead end" at every corner. LOL, who told him he knows anything about Neidan??? Any ways, anything like "meditation is wrong" brings our samurai to a state of a screaming troll, and he starts to repeat his evil-protection mantra: "all taoists are greedy", insulting a bunch of people in all crimes... But for open minded people everything is clear, and for Neidan practioners it's a well known fact, that various "meditation" technique can lead to a real dead-end: becoming a ghost immortal. There is nothing to argue here, really. 钟曰："修持之人，始也不悟大道，而欲于速成。形如搞木，心若死灰，神识内守，一志不散。定中以出阴神，乃清灵之鬼，非纯阳之仙。以其一志阴灵不散，故曰鬼仙。虽曰仙，其实鬼也。古今崇释之徒，用功到此，乃曰得道，诚可笑也。" Eva's translation (as usual, with "minor mistakes"): "'People become ghost immortals when they try to cultivate but do not understand the Tao. Wanting to make fast progress, they take shortcuts in their training. As a result, their bodies are as brittle as dry wood and their minds are as dead as cold ashes. Hoping to keep the spirit within, they hold on to their intention. Thus, when they enter stillness, only the yin spirit is liberated. As a result, they become ghosts with no spirit; they cannot become immortals of pure yang. Because the yin spirit does not dissipate after they die, they are called ghost immortals. Although these beings are classified as immortals, they are really ghosts with no substance. Practitioners who claim to be Buddhist and who practice incorrectly the techniques of quiet sitting usually end up as this type of immortal.'"

right, because it's not what you're supposed to do: you shouldn't twist anything including waist, you should use "kua" properly. Ask your teacher to show it to you, as well as how to adjust the lower back. Without all that the body is not aligned and separated, and it'll hurt. Here is a video for "robots" , but it illustrates my words a bit: