Internal Cultivation is a supernormal life style in nature

[Li Jiong]

Ordinary People always need hope(s) to live, thus, all kinds of hopes flood in this world. Whatever these hopes are useful or useless or mostly harmful actually, people rush to snap up these shady hopes. In this materialistic world, too many people already do not care whether the tired soul and spirit, is able to withstand the pain and pressure all day long panic. The worst thing is that the earth has already been heavily damaged, if the trend cannot be changed at root, it can support us for 30 years more at most.

In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are. I just had the experience of being a hermit in a mountain, there I did not need internet, computer, phone, as well as car, I ate simple food, generally rice gruel only, I thought little, my daily activities was practice and practice. I lived very well, never got any discomfort, and I felt happy in the depth of my heart. I blent in nature harmoniously, and understood man is an integral part of nature authentically.

If you cannot change your materialist life style, practice is useless actually, whatever how good training method you are engaged in. If you have a supernormal life style, you are on the right way on internal cultivation already, of course, if you know the proper training method, you will make progress rapidly. If more individuals change their mortal life style, the earth will be recoverable, and human on earth will continue for many many years, happiness will be full of the world.

[hagar]

hear hear

 

This is abit easier when you don't have a family to support.

The uncomfortable realization I have had is that I maintain a "unsustainable" lifestyle just so that my son is not going to be socially labelled as a weirdo with strange parents. Thus we need to have a proper home, (all the gadgets and gimmics) proper clothes (new and clean), the right stuff (expensive equipment) and have holidays that reflects our standard of living and social class.

 

The social stigma related to choosing to live "frugally" in Norway bugs the hell out of me. Fear-based parenting... I probably just live in the wrong part of town.

 

h

[suninmyeyes]

Hello Li Jiong,

It would be nice if we all can raise awaerness more and respect the Earth better.But not through changing materialistic ways of life as you call them ,but accepting nature as it is exactly-beutiful and gentle and kind,and wild and terrible,full of hopes and fears ...And change for good slowly creeps in then you cant do too much disrepect to Earth becouse its so painful and feeling sad.

Nature has her own ways and last word.Shell do exactly how she wants. Really if she makes you be able to do something then only it is poseable,otherwise not.I love her temperament and for me she is always beutiful .

So materialistic way is as natural as hermit way. Not to attach to either is the magic key.

sun

[de_paradise]

Yes this really really bothers me. Its clear our consumerist-materialist-kill all the fish in the sea value system is going to end badly when the eco-system gets too out of whack due to all our machinations. Why are humans so stupid? We are behaving like parasites that kills the host. Well anyway, Li Jiong, did you do your own cooking and cleaning, did you live in a little hut with no heat, or a cave where you urinated outside? Ive always dreamt of doing a hermit stage.

[Li Jiong]

hear hear

 

This is abit easier when you don't have a family to support.

The uncomfortable realization I have had is that I maintain a "unsustainable" lifestyle just so that my son is not going to be socially labelled as a weirdo with strange parents. Thus we need to have a proper home, (all the gadgets and gimmics) proper clothes (new and clean), the right stuff (expensive equipment) and have holidays that reflects our standard of living and social class.

 

The social stigma related to choosing to live "frugally" in Norway bugs the hell out of me. Fear-based parenting... I probably just live in the wrong part of town.

 

h

 

I know people all have enough reason to justify for their life style. But it is useless even if you can persuade me or other people, unless you can persuade the earth.

[Li Jiong]

Hello Li Jiong,

It would be nice if we all can raise awaerness more and respect the Earth better.But not through changing materialistic ways of life as you call them ,but accepting nature as it is exactly-beutiful and gentle and kind,and wild and terrible,full of hopes and fears ...And change for good slowly creeps in then you cant do too much disrepect to Earth becouse its so painful and feeling sad.

Nature has her own ways and last word.Shell do exactly how she wants. Really if she makes you be able to do something then only it is poseable,otherwise not.I love her temperament and for me she is always beutiful .

So materialistic way is as natural as hermit way. Not to attach to either is the magic key.

sun

 

I know nature has her own ways and last word, and I know her way is that she has to kill most people at last and then renews. I don't worry about nature, I worry about earthling, and I just hope more people will survive.

[Li Jiong]

Yes this really really bothers me. Its clear our consumerist-materialist-kill all the fish in the sea value system is going to end badly when the eco-system gets too out of whack due to all our machinations. Why are humans so stupid? We are behaving like parasites that kills the host. Well anyway, Li Jiong, did you do your own cooking and cleaning, did you live in a little hut with no heat, or a cave where you urinated outside? Ive always dreamt of doing a hermit stage.

 

I had been an Taoist priest for about one and half year. In this period, I lived in a small Taoist temple on a mountaintop, did my own cooking and cleaning.

I left the mountain and turned back to the city to manage some worldly things. When my worldly things all set, perhaps I will go to the mountain again.

[Athanor]

I know people all have enough reason to justify for their life style. But it is useless even if you can persuade me or other people, unless you can persuade the earth.

On a global scale, what you suggest is to let less-fortunate people die, which means hundreds of millions of people.

You see, civilization is based on this materialistic way and it is very clear that civilization has created lots of products which help much more people to survive than nature would let. For nature, it isn't wrong or bad to kill living creatures, or let them die, since death is a part of life. Yet, we've reached a level of development when we can cure sicknesses and give food to those who wouldn't have it anyway. We support the less fortunate and spare the life of those who wouldn't be spared by nature.

 

Now, the question is: would you (and do you have the right to) tell all these hundreds of millions that they are actually the cause of unsustainable life? Can you select those who are the cause and separate them from those who aren't? Could you label human beings like this? Children too?

 

It's nice that you'd like to change the living on Earth so that it will restore balance. Yet, you can't ignore the fact that there is already imbalance today, and that millions of human beings are parts of it. Today, if you only talk about how good it would be to live in a stronger relationship with nature, this is simply sentimental reverie. To actually find a way to achieve this, a way that will be good for everyone, is another question.

 

I don't think you would kill all those people to maintain Earth's natural processes. Although it would be a most wise choice to do on many levels, just think about how much nutrient all those dead bodies would mean to the soil... beautiful crops would rise. But the ones who are actually aware of the right direction of development (i.e. sustainable development) would not take the onus to get rid of the "obstacles". We cannot forget that sustaining life and development on this planet is only reasonable if it's done for the sake of human beings, or at least not against it. We do things for our own good. No human being must be sacrificed for any cause, especially if it's for humanity. But returning to a hermit-like living on a global scale would mean that. Avoiding civilization's fruits would kill many.

[Guest C Yu C He Taiji]

On what mountain did you live as a taoist priest? Do you know whether they accept foreign students as novices?

 

Chrisn

[DaoChild]

On what mountain did you live as a taoist priest? Do you know whether they accept foreign students as novices?

 

Chrisn

 

Hehe, the monastic situation in China is quite twisted and derailed. It's not just "show up as a foreign novice, chill and meditate. I'll do whatever you want".

 

If you're interested, I suggest you contact Dr. Louis Komjathy at UCSD. I spoke with him recently about this situation, and he is an initiate in several Quanzhen lines of Taoism. He has traveled all over china doing doctorate level research.

[Athanor]

If you're interested, I suggest you contact Dr. Louis Komjathy at UCSD. I spoke with him recently about this situation, and he is an initiate in several Quanzhen lines of Taoism. He has traveled all over china doing doctorate level research.

Do you think he can be contacted simply by email? Will he answer? You know, the name Komjathy sounds Hungarian, there are many Komjathys here... maybe he is from Hungary, and maybe he speaks my language. In that case, he's probably the best source of knowledge on taoism I can ever find... But my experience is that most of the people with vast knowledge don't answer emails with questions.

[Trunk]

On a global scale, what you suggest is to let less-fortunate people die, ..

I don't think you would kill all those people to maintain Earth's natural processes..

 

I think probably you misunderstand. The earth will enforce balance, it's not what we wish for. As ecosystems are damaged their carrying capacity (amount of life they can support) diminishes and that results in die off. We are taking from the earth faster than she can replenish so at some pt there'll be way too many of us and not enough food, lumber, energy, etc. Then populations will diminish greatly. It's tragic, but it's also just math.

[Li Jiong]

I think probably you misunderstand. The earth will enforce balance, it's not what we wish for. As ecosystems are damaged their carrying capacity (amount of life they can support) diminishes and that results in die off. We are taking from the earth faster than she can replenish so at some pt there'll be way too many of us and not enough food, lumber, energy, etc. Then populations will diminish greatly. It's tragic, but it's also just math.

 

Yes, the fact is so helpless, on one wishes for that. What we can do is living properly to save ourselves.

[Athanor]

I think probably you misunderstand. The earth will enforce balance, it's not what we wish for. As ecosystems are damaged their carrying capacity (amount of life they can support) diminishes and that results in die off. We are taking from the earth faster than she can replenish so at some pt there'll be way too many of us and not enough food, lumber, energy, etc. Then populations will diminish greatly. It's tragic, but it's also just math.

You know, since the beginning of Earth itself, there is no less matter and energy on this planet. In fact, due to meteors, there's more. The problem is not that there is not enough; the problem is in logistics (i.e. the food is not where the people), and in utilization problems (i.e. some energy sources cannot be used, or cannot be used well enough - like wind, sun, tide...).

There is well enough for everyone. Look at the waste America produces. Just the food put to waste here would serve a whole African country. But there is no way we could deliver this food to Africa. The food and the people are not in the same place. This is the main problem today with food, and not that there's not enough.

Maybe tomorrow there won't be enough. But you see, we've already come up with plenty of ideas how to improve food production, and there will be new ideas. And there will be new logistical solutions, and new energy sources. It's not just Earth that gives to people, it's also people who give to people. But the way people can give to people is called civilization. Hermits don't give to other people.

 

Restoring ecological balance on the planet and restoring spiritual balance in humanity are not the same. Spiritual balance has little to do with the lack of food, energy, water, and fresh air. Earth was doing fine even at the time when it was a hot boiling orb of lava. No life at all - Earth was fine. See, sustaining life is our interest. Earth won't decide how much life it will spare and how much it will take. Natural processes keep on doing their jobs without thinking of us. If we find a way how to give food and water to 30 billion people - it will still be fine for the Earth.