The Elixir Pellet Is Bought With Gold

[sean]

Via Wudang Taoist - "Preparatory work"

 

Someone may be tittering when I begin to talk about the money, because they think I have been preaching religious doctrine. In reality the majority of people have the conventional ideas that money meaning more or less vicious. Here the moneys in question take another meaning---to assist you in your pursuit of Tao. There are two reasons: one is that you need some food and clothes and residence when you begin your silent exercise, because in reality your corporeality hasn't been thoroughly purged of. The other lies in that without money you can apprentice yourself to none. So a saying is popular with the practitioners that the elixir pellet is bought with gold. With more knowledge concerning the experiences of Bai Shi Shan and Zhong Huang, you certainly will perceive more about the meaning of money. At beginning the two comrades were poor and could not afford the necessities, so they feed herds of sheep, and many flocks of oxen in ten years, during that period they economized and hoarded up savings; at last they fulfilled their aspirations. (Read more)

[Wayfarer64]

Hi Sean,

I sometimes wish that I had a good deal more money. I could then contribute to meaningful causes -such as the Tao Bums and various relief organizations etc...As it is, I have never been as poor in cash and investments as I am now. Mostly because I have not put much real effort into obtaining these things of late. It may be that I am out of balance in this regard or my balance is shifting to a more humble state of being. It is not yet a "comfortible" circomstance for me to be actually poor, which I am by American standards.

 

I have been in pursuit of many things throughout my life, but money has seldom been among the objects of my desire. I do realize that money is an inabler of change. Also, that many who have spent their lives in pursuit of wealth often retain little of " true and lasting" value within themselves. Camels can not pass through the eye of a needle. Greedy folks have little chance of enlightenment is a given, at least in this context.

Still...Survival is not greed.

As you note - we are earthly beings on the most basic of levels and survival is surely a "prime directive" of life.

In the context of this thread which seems to relate to the support of our teachers and sources of spiritual development - I am often at a loss to express my gratitude. These sources can be anyone or anything! How do we thank the clouds that inspire reverance for the beauty of our world?

 

Gifts and offerings we bring to those we admire, love, adore or revere - are tokens of our faith and trust in their abilities to transform our lives - be they lovers, spouses, kids, kith, kin, teachers, places of worship or just sacred spaces we find on walks in the mountains. Any of these gifts are only of value if given in a spirit of thanks and reverance for the shared inner spirit which has no name.

 

So it would seem to me that being the best human-being possible is the greatest gift that we can offer, and the paths of spiritual questing found here are often expressed in those terms. There is also some quite selfish questing - that a great teacher can dispell and move an able student through.

 

These elements of give and take are the dance of life and learning the steps is tricky. The materialism of modern society is an impedament to smooth foot-work. We often need to free ourselves of encumbering values before we can attempt to join the dance, much less really "cut a rug"...(Mastering any dance form has spiritual conotations to me. It is a glorious expression of humanity, grace and will combined, and can have martial applications as well.).

 

Alas, I have not yet met a master who would accept free dance lessons as payment!

[...]

yeah, man. I once read somewhere that it was important for a man (in old china,) to develop a strong worldly foundation, and care for his parents... And after this is achieved, THEN he goes on to pursue the tao.

 

I am a strong believer in that it is easier to 'detach' from something you have than it is to 'detach' from something you don't have.

[Wayfarer64]

Hey tri-dot,

Funny you should bring that up -One reason that I have so little money these days is that I spent most of my last several years taking care of my mom who died just last year. I would not have done other-wise and truly feel it was a blessing for me as well as for her to have been able to see her through to the end in a dignified and spiritually comforting circumstance. But it did undermine my ability to keep any - or make much - money.

 

And now I am more interested in working on my own life-long questing for spiritual knowledge than making money, so there is no fault to be found only an adjustment to be made. I am selling off all of my worldly possessions over the next several months, save some few I plan to put in storage -mostly books... And then start living a much more simplistic life as I once did. That is as far as the plan has developed - save for an idea that China holds my future. We shall see.

 

One amazing Quality of life seems to be that I always do somehow have what I need and have not been unduly worried about the lack there-of. I worry more about the children of Darfur - there is something very much out of balance there !!!

 

When real horror attaches itself to people's lives I am at a loss to explain why/how such things happen as the world looks on. Maybe A great teacher will have an answer for me one day as to the causality of such suffering...I wonder what that will cost me to find out?

[sean]

I am so broke right now I am like going into physical shock. Just a bunch of shit hit the fan at once for me financially and frankly I am getting pretty uptight about it. Trying to find a way to stay positive and keep my center. This situation is getting me more focused on money than I have ever been in my life though so I guess this is a good thing. Despite living just ahead of paycheck to paycheck most of my life, I've had this unshakable carefree attitude about money up until now.

[Lozen]

I got an ad in the mail from some car dealership. Scratched off the numbers and it said I won a prize. I forget all the possible prizes, but one was a television, one was an MP3 player, and one was $10,000. I was hoping it was the 10K so I could pay off part of my student loans, but then I remembered that in Chinese medicine they say winning the lottery is really bad for your heart chi. And I don't want to have to deal with bad heart chi. Good thing I ended up only winning this tiny little digital camera.

[sunshine]

but then I remembered that in Chinese medicine they say winning the lottery is really bad for your heart chi. And I don't want to have to deal with bad heart chi. Good thing I ended up only winning this tiny little digital camera.

 

Yippppppiiiieee. Very coool that thing with the camera... but regarding the heart chi...

 

I assume winning the lottery only damages the heart chi if one isn't prepared...

 

you know about it, so you hopefully are

 

so next time...

 

Harry

[Lozen]

Yippppppiiiieee. Very coool that thing with the camera... but regarding the heart chi...

 

I assume winning the lottery only damages the heart chi if one isn't prepared...

 

you know about it, so you hopefully are

 

so next time...

 

Harry

 

What about loved ones dying? Will that not damage your heart chi if you are prepared for it?

 

Oh, and I already had a better digital camera. Maybe I'll sell it. It retails for $18.

[Wayfarer64]

Hi Lozen,

 

Much of my selling off of stuff is to be done on eBay. I'd say the camera could fetch ya enough for a movie rental and some pop-corn to micro-wave...If u didn't unwrap it already...

 

In anycase I would like to win the lottery-

So I just got a flash of inspired wishful thinking & here's a plan to make it happen!

 

Everyone say a prayer for me to win it ( lets say the BIG game on Friday the 13th of October and I shall spread the wealth like the old hippy I remain!

 

OR lets pick our six numbers of five and one super ball # and each place a buck on that selection to split the pot before hand if that seems more FAIR...

 

If our collective consciousness can do that, then we can build a Taoist center and pay ourselves to remain a collective consciousness and there will be no end to wonders we may build upon...

 

All of our problems of a material nature would be solved and we could concentrate on our inner development...

AND we would be on the cover of all those nifty mags (right next to Tom Cruise) -at the check-out counters of large super-markets.

 

The Elixer Pellet just may be our collective consciousness and the gold a place for that consciouness to thrive- and work out more good karma than Nader's raiders...

 

Woowee!! It's a whole new way to be in it to win it...And an interesting test of collective will on the quantum level for the scientists among us to ponder. A total win-win.

 

My 6- I'll glean from the Yi Jing- 8-union; 10- conduct; 13- fellowship; 14- wealth; 42-increase;- and the big-ball -40-deliverence... so thats the basis for an experiment in collective gleaning of resources from our shared universal quantum experience-(some call it The Tao)...

 

Is this a means to an end or the begining of real means to foster many ends?

Anyway it's been fun adding this to our interactions here.-(ever the optimist) Pat

Edited October 8, 2006 by Wayfarer64

[sunshine]

What about loved ones dying? Will that not damage your heart chi if you are prepared for it?

 

Actually if you are I assume it will not... at least not as much as if you are unprepared...

 

I have seen many people dying and what moved me & saddened me in the beginning in many

ways has become so natural that it doesn't do damage any more...

 

Harry

[Lozen]

LOL, Wayfarer, but I don't have a microwave!

 

The thing that was weird was as I was driving I was trying to figure out if I was going the right way, and I heard a little voice saying "yeah, you're going the right way." Why can't God communicate to me as loud and clear about what I'm supposed to do with my life? Unless God really wants me to have a camera I don't need.

[thaddeus]

I am so broke right now I am like going into physical shock. Just a bunch of shit hit the fan at once for me financially and frankly I am getting pretty uptight about it. Trying to find a way to stay positive and keep my center. This situation is getting me more focused on money than I have ever been in my life though so I guess this is a good thing. Despite living just ahead of paycheck to paycheck most of my life, I've had this unshakable carefree attitude about money up until now.

what happened to the law of attraction...

[Yoda]

I have not yet met a master who would accept free dance lessons as payment!

 

AYP is 100% free. Yogani has all the gold he needs.

 

~~~~

 

Imo, we are spiritual beings through and through... anything we think, feel, and do is part of our spiritual growth, so making money or not making money is 100% compatible with being spiritual.

 

I've just gone from making about 50k/yr to over 100k part time and--in my particular case-- how I did it was simply to find a cultivation system that works for me which helps me feel better and have more energy... so other departments of life are clicking into place.

 

In the past, I've lived in my car eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, etc and had a perfectly grand time. In fact, I've never felt as rich as I did then--money just didn't exist.

 

That's really my quest again now... to earn enough that it ceases to exist. And the same thing on the work front--to have so much fun working that money is an inadvertent by-product.

 

Workgasms... ah.

 

The camel through the eye of the needle thing is misleading. Money has absolutely nothing to do with being a spiritually worthy being. Just look at kids... the silver spoons in the US and the children in Haiti aren't hung up on it, aren't casting judgement about it... they are all feeling good and having fun like Tao masters should.

 

Where the camel thing has something going for it, is that if you were to run around with a happy meter in Haiti and in, say, Manhattan... kids as well as adults would be happier in Haiti. Do this all over the world and one can find that money doesn't correlate with happiness or that money actually correlates with unhappiness, but I think that has more to do with cultural thought patterns than the actual possession of money.

 

 

what happened to the law of attraction...

 

My guess: Sean is doing too much high energy practices which is overloading his nervous system and makes him feel like shit on an ongoing basis but he sticks with it, b/c there are some occational burps of ecstacy that comes with those practices.

 

Sean, let me know how I did!

 

-Yoda

[mYTHmAKER]

I am so broke right now I am like going into physical shock. Just a bunch of shit hit the fan at once for me financially and frankly I am getting pretty uptight about it. Trying to find a way to stay positive and keep my center. This situation is getting me more focused on money than I have ever been in my life though so I guess this is a good thing. Despite living just ahead of paycheck to paycheck most of my life, I've had this unshakable carefree attitude about money up until now.

 

Here is a book which I highly recommend.

It helped me I hope it does the same for you.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-...TF8&s=books

[hagar]

I am so broke right now I am like going into physical shock. Just a bunch of shit hit the fan at once for me financially and frankly I am getting pretty uptight about it. Trying to find a way to stay positive and keep my center. This situation is getting me more focused on money than I have ever been in my life though so I guess this is a good thing. Despite living just ahead of paycheck to paycheck most of my life, I've had this unshakable carefree attitude about money up until now.

 

Sean, I hear you man.

 

I've been there. Where ever sunlight shines there must also be shadow.

Money is important, but don't let it disturb you sleep. After all, what do you know of life tomorrow?

 

Like with life, be with money like spring.

 

For solace go to:

http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/gould_glenn/Goul...-World_1981.mp3

 

h

[sean]

what happened to the law of attraction...

I guess I am attracting disaster. I think I am still in manifestation kindergarten. I have this real feeling though that this is one of those "darkest before dawn" situations.

 

Yoda, actually you might be on to something. At first I was like, what is he talking about, I am happy as a clam ... but in hindsight I've been pretty hot-headed lately ... with, just like you said, really amazing pockets of calm and bliss that buzz through my day and I guess make it hard to notice how bumpy of a ride I may be having.

 

Plus, dog year for a dragon ... that's always a roller coaster.

 

Mythmaker, thanks for the book recommendation. Anything with over 300 reviews on amazon is as a rule something I like to at least peek at, I will definitely check this out.

 

Hagar, thanks for the link, I'm plugging it into iTunes now.

 

 

Sean

[Yoda]

Yoda, actually you might be on to something. At first I was like, what is he talking about, I am happy as a clam ... but in hindsight I've been pretty hot-headed lately ... with, just like you said, really amazing pockets of calm and bliss that buzz through my day and I guess make it hard to notice how bumpy of a ride I may be having.

 

Sean,

 

That's what I learned from sungazing... I'm calling it: there's not another practice as sexy and exciting as that one... the love is so powerful, I tear up just thinking about it. Sure there was turbulence, but damn, I got to hang out with the gods and very high priests, etc in my dreams--it was great!!

 

But I noticed that my deals were *all* falling apart--it was really weird-- it was like I was under a curse... my finances totally sucked wind for 2005.

 

I realized that something would have to change... so that's when you posted a year ago re: ayp where Yogani described pranayama poisoning and I realized that that was what I had done to myself. So I dropped sungazing and other energy practices like retention, etc and focused on iam meditation and my emotional life softened from an exciting graphic novel to a much mellower vibe. It was only after a few months that I could really see that the sungazing really made me a bit edgy throughout the day.

 

Per law of attraction, many aspects of my life became smoother.

 

One point that Esther makes re: law of attraction, is that it isn't the high amplitude emotions one feels that effect your destiny, it's the 24/7 self talk. So hitting one's thumb with a hammer and throwing a full blown tantrum over it doesn't really have that much power creating your future even though the negativity was pretty powerful. But the mood that had slowly lead up to the tantrum and the mood that tapered from the tantrum--that mood may have a life of several hours, days, months, years, etc and that's what creates the future.

 

But much more than that, those moods destroy the experience of the now. Why screw with subtle negativity when you can be experiencing joy and happiness? Living a decent life just isn't good enough when it can be lifegasmic at the peaks and blissful in the valleys. Esther doesn't give a shit about the $$s or the manifestations. The only reason why we want those things is an excuse to feel blissful anyways. Milarepa didn't even own a shirt or a bowl of food... manifesting stuff is just like doing long division for someone like that.

 

The key use of manifestations are to point out emotions that one doesn't care to admit. I wasn't sensitive enough to admit or be aware of the downsides of excessive sungazing, so my lack of income kindly helped me see that I was emoting in a way that didn't serve me.

 

Whenever something negative happened to Milarepa, he'd realize that the experience was a projection of his mind and was grateful to the robber, demon etc for highlighting some aspect of his vibration that he had not yet dealt with... Buddhist terminology, but same process.

 

-Yoda

[forestofsouls]

what happened to the law of attraction...

 

 

It's been said/taught that when one cultivates, latent karma becomes manifest.

 

Taken psychologically, we can understand this to mean that when one begins to quiet one's mind, our deep mental habits begin to bubble up. For instance, just sitting still tends to jostle the habit of restless moving.

 

Taken literally, this can mean that latent illnesses, bad luck spots, and all the rest may come to the fore so that they can be processed and disposed of. It's the same principle on a larger scale.

 

I've had very few teachers, but they agree on one point: the higher you go, the harder it gets, and the bigger the obstacles become.

 

Personally, I've found this to be true. Many things about myself that I didn't want to face, my personal weaknesses I had always ignored or rationalized came to the fore when I started meditating/Tai Chi. For example, I spent many years smoking, and ignoring the negative effects of this habit. I lied, I rationalized, etc. But when I became a little more aware, I observed what it did to me, how my muscles tightened, how it made my throat feel, how my lungs didn't like it. Quitting smoking was/is a very illuminating experience. I understand a lot more about will and addiction, which we all lack and have.

 

Other example are very humbling, embarrasing situations that were good to rub off a bit of ego, even if they hurt at the time.

 

In Buddhism, it is said that in the land of the gods, meditation is easy, life is blissful, and things are very smooth. But the gods can never reach enlightenment, because they never learn how to bear suffering.

[sean]