"Before I studied cultivation..."

[Sloppy Zhang]

So lately I've been thinking about this quote from Bruce Lee:

 

"Before I learned martial arts, a punch was just a punch and a kick was just a kick. When I studied martial arts, a punch was no longer just a punch and a kick was no longer just a kick. Now I understand martial arts, and a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

 

And have been applying that to my own path of cultivation. At first you know, meditation was just sitting somewhere with your eyes closed for a long time. Then I got into energy work, learned about channels, learned about all the different kinds of energy, how to circulate them, how not to circulate them. I started seeing this stuff in everything. At some points, I even started to become a bit of an energy hypochondriac always worrying what my energy was doing, how it was doing it, whether it should be doing it that way. Previously ordinary things became quite extraordinary, and I kind of started to envy the "ordinary" people who had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, because they didn't have to worry about blockages, or whether energy was going the right way, or any of that stuff.

 

Lately I've really been trying to return to the whole "be natural" thing... like, really be natural rather than just towing the party line and saying, "oh yeah, be natural". Trying to reclaim the openness and "normalcy" I guess you could say that I had before I started this whole cultivation. It's easy to be "natural" and "at ease" when you don't know what's going on, but much harder after you know a lot of stuff.

 

I see a lot of it around here, especially with topics like retention (seems like there's a new one made every couple of days), converting jing to qi to shen, opening however many eyes you want, gaining a transmission from so-and-so... isn't having sex just sex? Isn't meditation a return to stillness?

 

I'm not necessarily saying that we should all just try and forget the systems out there that we might know, some of which that might trace their lineage back hundreds or thousands of years. But even if we haven't reached that point yet, we should at least try and keep our minds at the end goal. Because a punch is just a punch, and sitting is just sitting, right?

 

Thoughts? (seems like a pretty redundant thing to ask, but it doesn't feel right leaving it off )

Edited December 29, 2009 by Sloppy Zhang

[goldisheavy]

So lately I've been thinking about this quote from Bruce Lee:

 

"Before I learned martial arts, a punch was just a punch and a kick was just a kick. When I studied martial arts, a punch was no longer just a punch and a kick was no longer just a kick. Now I understand martial arts, and a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

 

And have been applying that to my own path of cultivation. At first you know, meditation was just sitting somewhere with your eyes closed for a long time. Then I got into energy work, learned about channels, learned about all the different kinds of energy, how to circulate them, how not to circulate them. I started seeing this stuff in everything. At some points, I even started to become a bit of an energy hypochondriac always worrying what my energy was doing, how it was doing it, whether it should be doing it that way. Previously ordinary things became quite extraordinary, and I kind of started to envy the "ordinary" people who had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, because they didn't have to worry about blockages, or whether energy was going the right way, or any of that stuff.

 

Lately I've really been trying to return to the whole "be natural" thing... like, really be natural rather than just towing the party line and saying, "oh yeah, be natural". Trying to reclaim the openness and "normalcy" I guess you could say that I had before I started this whole cultivation. It's easy to be "natural" and "at ease" when you don't know what's going on, but much harder after you know a lot of stuff.

 

Hey, just because you cannot see them, doesn't mean they're not out to get you. *dons a tin foil hat*

 

I see a lot of it around here, especially with topics like retention (seems like there's a new one made every couple of days), converting jing to qi to shen, opening however many eyes you want, gaining a transmission from so-and-so... isn't having sex just sex? Isn't meditation a return to stillness?

 

I'm not necessarily saying that we should all just try and forget the systems out there that we might know, some of which that might trace their lineage back hundreds or thousands of years. But even if we haven't reached that point yet, we should at least try and keep our minds at the end goal. Because a punch is just a punch, and sitting is just sitting, right?

 

Thoughts? (seems like a pretty redundant thing to ask, but it doesn't feel right leaving it off )

 

Right on.

 

This obsession with energy comes from thinking that the universe is a giant machine. So then, if you want to manipulate the universe, you pull the strings of your energy to do it. So the conception of "energy" gives you more levers to play with.

 

However, if you understand the oneness of intent and that the universe is a harmonious emanation of your state of being, there are no levers to pull. Any kind of purposeful pulling and pushing on any lever, at that point, becomes an artifice. You can still retain your integrity and do some pushing and pulling, but only if you push and pull as an ornament, and not in any kind of purposeful way to achieve something. So if I am hanging a Christmas tree ornament on the tree just to beautify it, that's OK. But if I am hanging the same tree ornament on the same tree to make the tree more fireproof or to make the tree turn into a rabbit, then I am strongly deluded and my integrity is shot.

 

Ornamental actions are always allowed. Purposeful ones are actions of struggle, they always involve pushing and pulling on levers of some machine. Purposeful actions make some (small) sense if you interact with your most honest conception-perception of the machine. This conception is not universal though. So the lever that's true for one person can possibly be false for another, because the machines are not necessarily shared.

[markern]

Most of the time I find it to be a distraction to go arround being aware of my channels and stuff like that. It makes me introverted and somewhat out of the situation and makes it difficult to just be in the "zone". I really want to somehow return to normal as well. Maybe try to just be aware of channels arround practice time?

[z00se]

Most of the time I find it to be a distraction to go arround being aware of my channels and stuff like that. It makes me introverted and somewhat out of the situation and makes it difficult to just be in the "zone". I really want to somehow return to normal as well. Maybe try to just be aware of channels arround practice time?

 

But you took the blue pill (or what it the red pill?) and now you can't go back. Just hang in there a bit longer and soon you'll be able to dodge bullets and kick some evil agent arse.

 

I wonder if the oracle ever needed to munch a pill or she just always knew.

[markern]

But you took the blue pill (or what it the red pill?) and now you can't go back.

 

Yes, hahaha thats what I did