Beginner looking for some advice on the path

[BlueMonk91]

Hello all,

I basically want some advice as to how I should begin to integrate taoism into my daily life through meditation and study. I've been reading the Tao Te Ching and I Ching for a couple of years now but I've never meditated, do you need meditation?. Im 20 years old studying philosophy at university, I was raised as a christian but never really followed it. In the last few years I've really become interested in various religions because I sense something is missing in my life as if there is something out there or part of reality that im not acknowledging. I've learnt valuable things from most religions but I've found taoism particularly striking but im a bit lost in terms of where to begin and proceed from simply reading the texts. Also is it better to study something like the Tao Te Ching analytically and try to pick apart the meaning or is it better to simply take in the text and let your subconscious and intuition do the work or is it a combination of both.

Thanks

[RiverSnake]

Put the books away...they can point you in the right direction but when it comes to integrating the Way into your life you need to develop a steady daily practice.

[Protector]

Throw away all the chairs in your house

[RyanO]

Hi there, yes I would say meditation is necessary depending on your goals (and how meditation is defined). The best beginning practice in my opinion is the Inner Smile. It's explained in detail in both practice and theory in Michael Winn's ebook: http://www.scribd.com/doc/25141317/Winn-M-The-Way-of-the-Inner-Smile

 

If that interests you I encourage you to download it free from his website by entering your email: http://www.healingtaousa.com/

 

There are different ways to practice and different applications of the Inner Smile. His book goes quite in to detail and has a lengthy meditation. It is great, but if it is too much at first check out this simpler explanation: http://chippit.tripod.com/inner_smile.html

 

Also, the best book on overall qigong theory I know of is Ken Cohen's book on qiqong:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=cm_lmf_tit_2

 

 

To follow Taoist philosophy one need not practice qigong but they are very complementary. Meditation will help you reach a state of flow and equanimity that allows you to put the principles into practice. In my understanding, the TTC is best not read logically or analytically, but rather meditatively. In my experience the Inner Smile is a great 'practical' way to apply the principles of the TTC.

 

Best of luck to you in your path.

[ChiDragon]

Throw away all the chairs in your house

Was that a suggestion to meditate on the floor....???

[doc benway]

Hello all,

I basically want some advice as to how I should begin to integrate taoism into my daily life through meditation and study. I've been reading the Tao Te Ching and I Ching for a couple of years now but I've never meditated, do you need meditation?. Im 20 years old studying philosophy at university, I was raised as a christian but never really followed it. In the last few years I've really become interested in various religions because I sense something is missing in my life as if there is something out there or part of reality that im not acknowledging. I've learnt valuable things from most religions but I've found taoism particularly striking but im a bit lost in terms of where to begin and proceed from simply reading the texts. Also is it better to study something like the Tao Te Ching analytically and try to pick apart the meaning or is it better to simply take in the text and let your subconscious and intuition do the work or is it a combination of both.

Thanks

Daoism (Taoism) is about coming more into contact with and living in accordance with our true nature. At least that's my one line description. The most important principle to live by are Wu Wei and Zi Ran. These are worth investigating on this forum and elsewhere.

 

Meditation is a good way to allow the thinking mind to come more into contact with it's true nature. Otherwise, it sort of runs amok and leads us to act in a very conditioned and robotic fashion.

 

To study Daoist texts analytically and intellectually is antithetical to the intention of the Daoists, IMO.

I think it is more valuable to read the classics in small bits and then see how what they are saying can be applied to or recognized in your daily life.

 

One way I have been applying this in my life is to identify my own core values - the things that are truly important to me at a deep and personal level. This reflects the nature of who I am and who I would like to be. To do this requires a great deal of awareness.

It takes a long time to really get to know yourself. And getting to know yourself also means getting to know everyone and everything around you. There is no better window into yourself than the mirror of relationship, both with people and the environment.

 

I then try to make choices in my life that are consistent with those core values rather than go against them.

Similarly, I try to make choices that allow me live in accordance with what actually exists in reality as opposed to what my expectations or desires may tell me. When my expectations or desires are in conflict with what actually exists, I am in conflict with what is - that goes against the fundamental Daoist principle of Wu Wei.

 

Hang out here, read some of the stuff, and enjoy!

[3bob]

If you haven't already consider reading some of Alan Watts works, although he is from another time much of his materail is helpful for "east-west" communications and some understanding of various terms and meanings in studies related to such...

 

The "comibnation of both" work idea is fine - starting where we are at is all one can do, for projecting to much ahead or behind only causes additional frustration. I'd remark that we really go nowhere except in consciousness.

 

"Meditation" is a commonly abused word in the sense of all various meanings we often imagine about it. If you have ever concentrated on anything at all to point of "getting in the zone" then you have also been in a form of or state of meditation.

 

Honesty, wholesome-ness, compassion for others and yourself along with some light hearted humor will help see you through some heavy duty stuff. We are not alone as noted in the famous saying, "no man is an island".

 

Best wishes to you

Edited January 21, 2012 by 3bob

[Protector]

Was that a suggestion to meditate on the floor....???

 

I heard long ago Taoists would just walk around most of the time, on the hills mountains and all that stuff. All the walking around would add some years to a person's age and I heard that when some general asked this one super old dude what was his secret, he gave some pointers and one of the most important, I think, was sitting formally. So, throw away all the chairs and if you need to sit down, sit in seiza or do the HORSE STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE

[Marks of Glory]

Hi brother.... nice age to start with your practice!

 

I read alot.. till today, but if you find the right practices then you should really put the books away, as they will start to haunt you and become kinda obssessive....

 

About your practice I will recomend the following:

 

1) (and more important) selfless activity in the world. Do not fight back when one strikes you (let the eagle peck you liver like prometheus to release you from the chains of materiality)

2) Train you breath retention (if you are interested I can pass you my own breath retention ratios) This will help in energy conduction and absorpion futurely.

3) Strengthen your legs and pelvic region muscles (Horse stance or Plane standing meditation)

 

This will keep you buissy for a while... to find perfection in those practices

 

may she Bless us with Grace

[Jetsun]

I think every person you ask will give you a different answer, which can be a teaching in itself, I wouldn't for example recommend hardly anything most the other people have recommended in this thread for a beginner especially things like artificial breathing practices.

 

One tip is that I would definitely stay away from the sexual energy practices. For some basics though personally I think Bruce Frantzis is a good resource. Ideas from books are good in the beginning but on their own will do nothing without some sort of meditation or body practice.

 

Best of luck in your practice, starting as young as 20 could be excellent if you could find a practice you resonate with and can keep up for a few years, you may find it helps you in many other areas of your life too. If I was to go back to when I was 20 I think I would recommend myself something as simple as basic breath awareness meditation or zhan zuhang standing meditation to prepare the ground, the more complicated methods cause more problems they are worth in my view.

[BlueMonk91]

Hi there, yes I would say meditation is necessary depending on your goals (and how meditation is defined). The best beginning practice in my opinion is the Inner Smile. It's explained in detail in both practice and theory in Michael Winn's ebook: http://www.scribd.com/doc/25141317/Winn-M-The-Way-of-the-Inner-Smile

 

If that interests you I encourage you to download it free from his website by entering your email: http://www.healingtaousa.com/

 

There are different ways to practice and different applications of the Inner Smile. His book goes quite in to detail and has a lengthy meditation. It is great, but if it is too much at first check out this simpler explanation: http://chippit.tripod.com/inner_smile.html

 

Also, the best book on overall qigong theory I know of is Ken Cohen's book on qiqong:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=cm_lmf_tit_2

 

 

To follow Taoist philosophy one need not practice qigong but they are very complementary. Meditation will help you reach a state of flow and equanimity that allows you to put the principles into practice. In my understanding, the TTC is best not read logically or analytically, but rather meditatively. In my experience the Inner Smile is a great 'practical' way to apply the principles of the TTC.

 

Best of luck to you in your path.

 

Hi thanks for the reply. I've been reading the inner smile online book for a couple of hours now thanks for that, it's quite interesting learning a lot from it.

[BlueMonk91]

I think every person you ask will give you a different answer, which can be a teaching in itself, I wouldn't for example recommend hardly anything most the other people have recommended in this thread for a beginner especially things like artificial breathing practices.

 

One tip is that I would definitely stay away from the sexual energy practices. For some basics though personally I think Bruce Frantzis is a good resource. Ideas from books are good in the beginning but on their own will do nothing without some sort of meditation or body practice.

 

Best of luck in your practice, starting as young as 20 could be excellent if you could find a practice you resonate with and can keep up for a few years, you may find it helps you in many other areas of your life too. If I was to go back to when I was 20 I think I would recommend myself something as simple as basic breath awareness meditation or zhan zuhang standing meditation to prepare the ground, the more complicated methods cause more problems they are worth in my view.

 

I tried a sexual energy practice of some sort for 1 month where I didn't ejaculate for a month but exercised everyday, I seemed to have more energy but there was irration after while.

[z00se]

Hi thanks for the reply. I've been reading the inner smile online book for a couple of hours now thanks for that, it's quite interesting learning a lot from it.

 

learn healing sounds too. Thats probably the best practice there is. Very quiet effect and very powerful. Healing sounds are free TCM.

[Jetsun]

I think there is a huge difference between a philosopher or intellectual in this stuff compared to an actual practitioner, you can read the bible a hundred times without it turning you into a "good Christian" because nearly all the methods to transform your negative emotions and egoic mind have been lost from Christianity, similarly with Taoism if you just read and try to understand the texts it wont transform you unless you have a disciplined practice.

 

There is plenty of scientific evidence now to show that things like meditation change and transform the areas of your brain to do with positive compassionate emotions and strengthen your resistance to stress, but these brain change results only show up in long term dedicated practitioners and monks and not the irregular or purely intellectual practitioner. I have done philosophy modules at university and it is interesting and I wouldn't mind studying more of it, but a lot of it is just intellectual masturbation and wont actually improve life at all.

[BlueMonk91]

I think there is a huge difference between a philosopher or intellectual in this stuff compared to an actual practitioner, you can read the bible a hundred times without it turning you into a "good Christian" because nearly all the methods to transform your negative emotions and egoic mind have been lost from Christianity, similarly with Taoism if you just read and try to understand the texts it wont transform you unless you have a disciplined practice.

 

There is plenty of scientific evidence now to show that things like meditation change and transform the areas of your brain to do with positive compassionate emotions and strengthen your resistance to stress, but these brain change results only show up in long term dedicated practitioners and monks and not the irregular or purely intellectual practitioner. I have done philosophy modules at university and it is interesting and I wouldn't mind studying more of it, but a lot of it is just intellectual masturbation and wont actually improve life at all.

 

I agree with you im ready to take my study into a practical phase. I've also been reading a lot of gurdjieff/ouspensky stuff. Would you say the aim of meditation in taoism is similar to the gurdjieff idea of self remembering to combat the robotic condition of man.

[konchog uma]

Some people meditate 3 or 4 hours a day, some 10 min, some don't. I'm glad you want to deepen your practice. I personally love meditation, and recommend that you try it for a while, like a month, sitting at least 10 min a day. If possible, keep a journal! Then at the end of a month (or however long you decide to sit) see if you like it!

 

It helps to sit at the same time every day, I recommend in the morning, about 15-30 min after waking up, but some people are still tired. I make some tea if that happens, but you can sit at any time of the day that fits into your schedule. I also think it helps to do the same kind of meditation every day, which is weird because there are hundreds of kinds of meditations, and choosing one blind can suck.

 

Two meditations that can be learned and practiced easily are samatha and vipassana. You can look them up and learn them online and practice them safely. Daoist meditations tend to be more energy oriented, and if you want instructions on basic beginner daoist meditation, you should just ask here and i'm sure you'll get some good replies. They tend to be based around minding the breathing, keeping the mind on the lower dan tian, and implementing the diaphram, belly muscles, and perineum into the breath.

 

Maybe with a little talking about it here you could narrow down what kind of meditation you were looking to do. Oh well, just an idea, I hope it takes root, sitting is awesome

[Jetsun]

I agree with you im ready to take my study into a practical phase. I've also been reading a lot of gurdjieff/ouspensky stuff. Would you say the aim of meditation in taoism is similar to the gurdjieff idea of self remembering to combat the robotic condition of man.

 

I think they have the same intention, which is essentially undoing conditioning, breaking free of habits of mind, body and emotion and making us more conscious of what we really are. But I'd be a bit careful of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, i love the Fourth Way stuff and find it completely fascinating and study it a lot, but many people try to turn it into an intellectual practice which is the main criticism given to Ouspensky, they even have a conference every year to to try to analyse their works, but many of the practical methods of that system come back to working with the energies of the body, so working with the body is a good place to start in my opinion. Self remembering is quite a complicated subject though and I'm not sure I fully understand it after many years of trying so it is not as straight forward as many Taoist practices.

[3bob]

Ok, you've been reading a lot of Mr. G and Mr. O... I assume you already know that several cults have co-opted those interesting "fragments". Btw, I've come across a couple of "4th way" groups that seemed ok but they were the exception. (Not unlike what happens with a lot of this kind of stuff)

 

So another suggestion is to study up on the inner and outer workings of various cults, all is not as it may appear or sound.

 

For instance, - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - whose groupies now use the name 'Osho' just like he did before he passed have teachings that take credit for being in tune with or in the know about every spiritual system under the sun! Heck I still have a couple of two dollar bills around I'd sell for five bucks...

 

http://elizabeth-gibson.suite101.com/rajneesh-gets-paranoid-a16155

[konchog uma]

I never knew all that stuff about bagwan shree rajneesh! holy SH@%!

[joeblast]

I tried a sexual energy practice of some sort for 1 month where I didn't ejaculate for a month but exercised everyday, I seemed to have more energy but there was irration after while.

When both the body & mind are stilled and harmonious, the body utilizes all that extra energy that you're not using (and if your breathwork is good there's even more) and puts it into core processes. Utilization of sexual energy is best done before its even sexual energy (But if you're using the sexual energy in whatever fashion, your body will make sure it is replenished.) The way I stilled my mind was through copious amounts of watching & harmonizing the breath - when the mind is focused on an action it is less likely to think randomly, and just like playing a guitar or some other action that creates a muscle memory, once you've gotten into good practice and built up that muscle memory, then you wont need to use as much 'mental capital' to keep the action as harmonious. Again the extra goes to core processes, developing a new path of least resistance, which actually reduces the popping off of random thought.

With the abundance of energy created, bask in the radiant awareness This gets at the root of sexual energy - the mind. Dismissing improper thought will train your path of least resistance, with time and effort (aka gongfu) the sexual tension is resolved at the root level. (Its not necessarily the emergence, but the indulgence...)

[rex]

In his own words, at the age 100, Wang Ji Wu Describes his principles of living a healthy life:

 

The heart is calm, quiet as still water/Live an enthusiastic life, serve the public good

 

This is pure class and taken from the book Xing Yi Nei Gong.

[lifeforce]

In his own words, at the age 100, Wang Ji Wu Describes his principles of living a healthy life:

 

The heart is calm, quiet as still water/Live an enthusiastic life, serve the public good

 

This is pure class and taken from the book Xing Yi Nei Gong.

 

Superb !

[BlueMonk91]

In his own words, at the age 100, Wang Ji Wu Describes his principles of living a healthy life:

 

The heart is calm, quiet as still water/Live an enthusiastic life, serve the public good

 

This is pure class and taken from the book Xing Yi Nei Gong.

 

Thanks great article. My maternal grandmother died at the end of last year aged 106, she had 7 children. She was never ill, could walk and talk etc sounds like she unconsciously applied seems of the things in that article.

[RiverSnake]

I think everyone has given you pretty good advice.

 

The only thing i would add is that many people will tell you that you should do this or that practice...and that one system is more powerful than the other or that there way is the fastest way to enlightenment...etc

 

IME and IMO, there are dozens of great practices out there and some are more powerful than others...but how powerful a system is, is less important than how strongly it resonates with you as an individual. Take your time looking at the many different practices out there whether they be: Chi-Gung, Neigong, Mantra, Meditations...etc

 

What is more important than the system is how strongly you feel about your practices, how deeply they resonate with you as an individual...the path you choose is a very personal thing...and there is no one path that suits everyone...take your time to find something that you feel very strongly about and then dedicate your whole life to that single area until your life and your practice become indistinguishable...this is the Way to get the most out of whatever you do.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[3bob]

btw, do you walk around campus telling women known or unknown to you that you have not popped off your private parts for a month? How dumb, save that for private counsel... btw2 most of the women here have the common sense not to share stories of their private plumbing in public whether they know us or not.