How many people practice Taoism to gain supernatural powers?

[doc benway]

 

I realized that I want this madness to stop, either via eternal non existence, or eternal existence. So that's my interest in this whole "supernatural" bit.

 

 

Is it possible that the "accomplishment" that can be achieved through cultivation is not to make the madness stop but to no longer be a slave to that desire?

Who are "you" that is separate that can stop?

If there is that degree of desperation for it to stop, there is imbalance.

Cultivation is about restoring balance.

[Thunder_Gooch]

 

It's a fact.

 

 

When I have time I'll address this in the pit for you. Sorry you'll have to wait.

[Thunder_Gooch]

Is it possible that the "accomplishment" that can be achieved through cultivation is not to make the madness stop but to no longer be a slave to that desire?

Who are "you" that is separate that can stop?

If there is that degree of desperation for it to stop, there is imbalance.

Cultivation is about restoring balance.

 

Steve,

 

I do not know if Taoist immortals are truly immortal or just live as spirits for a really really really long time. Maybe when the sun engulfs the earth as a red giant, they'll be destroyed with the rest of the earth, I don't really have a good answer for you.

 

So in the end becoming like them may well be futile.

 

What I do know though is mainstream spiritual practices offer nothing of meaning or value to people who pursue them.

 

The best anyone can hope for is achieving a state where they are anesthetized to loss, pain, disease, and death.

Edited October 16, 2012 by More_Pie_Guy

[Marblehead]

@Marblehead

 

So tempting to get into the 'when is a tree not a tree' discussion ... but I am holding myself back.

 

.... no I am ...

That too would be a fun game.

[Marblehead]

I simply do not believe that such a thing as an atheists forum could ever truly exist.

I'm not even going to state one way or another.

 

We would likely get mobbed by Christians trying to save our soul.

[Marblehead]

A tree is not a tree when it is a New Zealand Palm (That's a fern).

HTH

Yep, those are the old world plants. Not many of them left. (All the first 'trees' were of the fern family.)

[shanlung]

Steve,

 

 

The best anyone can hope for is achieving a state where they are anesthetized to loss, pain, disease, and death.

 

You might well be right.

 

I rather prefer a more optimistic viewpoint.

 

 

I rather keep on my blinkers and rose tinted glasses and not see the coming meltdown of icecaps and diseases and famine rampant on Earth.

 

And in the meantime, enjoy whatever is left to enjoy and to max my happiness and min aggro to myself and others (unless over the chessboard)

 

Idiot lurching and reeling on the Path.

Chinese - jin jou yeo jiu

jin jou juoi

 

 

literal - now I have the wine

now I will be drunk

 

 

in my mind - At this and every instant of time,

live and savour all aspects of happiness and of being alive.

[Marblehead]

................................................

I love that last line in Camus 'The Outsider'....

 

"I surrendered myself to the sublime indifference of the universe"

My problem is that I'm not going to surrender. (But yes, we are indeed subject to the indifference of the universe.)

[Stosh]

Us godless atheists may not start as much trouble but we do know how to finish it.

Stosh

[Mokona]

Are athiests against developing chi? How do they react when it starts to happen? Do you turn to non-medative practices and stop chi kung excersises to prevent it? I don't see how it can be avoided. It just started happening for me. I even attracted spirits. It's hard for me to understand how someone who practices these techniques can be athiest.

[ChiDragon]

I am an atheist and practicing Chi Kung and Tai Ji perfectly without attracting any spirits. The notion about spirits was only in the mind of the practitioner.......

[Birch]

Looks like I'm pretty able to combine my atheism with lots of other things;-)

Let me define my atheism as being my rejection of the 'big white bearded dude in the sky who has total authority over everything - including you'

[Apech]

 

Oi! Shut up down there!!!!! *deep voice echoes slightly resulting in earth tremor*

 

Looks like I'm pretty able to combine my atheism with lots of other things;-)

Let me define my atheism as being my rejection of the 'big white bearded dude in the sky who has total authority over everything - including you'

[Mokona]

I am an atheist and practicing Chi Kung and Tai Ji perfectly without attracting any spirits. The notion about spirits was only in the mind of the practitioner.......

Correct, becuase notions are of the mind, ie: mind of the practictioner. If you haven't run across something that can effect your energy against your will - or when your not practicing, your probably not developing past your sense of balance. Of course i've seen tai chi and chi kung meditators that have your same problem. I don't know what you guys are doing wrong, honestly.

 

It seems really lame (IMO) when a guy can do the splits or can demo some really effective physical movement but still have no spirit.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Mokona

[GrandmasterP]

There's an entire cultivation in martial arts based around the concept of the player being 'possessed' by a spirit. Forget the name of it but Nigel Sutton mentions having seen it in one of his books. Nigel says that for all the aspects of 'possession' claimed the moves pretty much represent standard CMA ones.

[Mokona]

Weird, did you mention that purely becuase spirits came up?

[Dainin]

Spirit Fighting?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3wRZCP0sy8

 

 

The guy that's talking used to post on this forum. He still has a banner ad that comes up for his Celestial Nei Kung DVDs. I think that he had a falling out with the grandmaster of the system (not sure). He was an interesting guy, but didn't seem to like questions or criticism very much.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Dainin

[Marblehead]

I just allowed some spirits to enter my body. One small glass of Riunite Lambrusco (low alcohol sweet red wine). That's about as spirited as I get.

[Mokona]

How many on this forum actually *successfully* are developing chi from whatever they practice? There was a guy who was really into Tai Chi that met his cultivation goals, he did the Taoist 100 days cultivation?

 

If my curioisty can be satisified, is it that chi in general is also on the athiest list of things-that-don't-exist? Or only spirits? How old are the athiests on this board? I'd like to learn more about what an athiest taoist cultivator believes in, and what they actually practice and experienced through cultivation. I've never been exposed in person to those beliefs or personnel that share them. So i'm highly woefully uneducated in this subject. Please teach me!

Edited October 16, 2012 by Mokona

[Marblehead]

How many on this forum actually *successfully* are developing chi from whatever they practice? There was a guy who was really into Tai Chi that met his cultivation goals, he did the Taoist 100 days cultivation?

 

If my curioisty can be satisified, is it that chi in general is also on the athiest list of things-that-don't-exist? Or only spirits? How old are the athiests on this board? I'd like to learn more about what an athiest taoist cultivator believes in, and what they actually practice and experienced through cultivation. I've never been exposed in person to those beliefs or personnel that share them. So i'm highly woefully uneducated in this subject. Please teach me!

 

I suppose I could be called a unreligious bigot because I do believe in the energy of Chi; both at the individual level and at the universal level. This belief is not too far removed from science right now especially if one velieves those scientists who say that everything in the universe is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies.

 

However, I do not 'practice' nor do I 'cultivate'. I, therefore, am unable to answer your questions other than what I have already offered.

 

I hope you find someone with whom you can have an educated discussion.

[Stosh]

The definitions of your words, as you mean them ,would probably change the responses you might get

especially the word 'Atheist'.

Might I suggest you start a thread with that question to get the greatest number of folks to see it?

Stosh

[Mokona]

Thanks Marbles!

[Mokona]

A double.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Mokona

[Birch]

 

Oi! Shut up down there!!!!! *deep voice echoes slightly resulting in earth tremor*

 

Showing age and culture of origin Mr Apech;-)?

[Birch]

How many on this forum actually *successfully* are developing chi from whatever they practice? There was a guy who was really into Tai Chi that met his cultivation goals, he did the Taoist 100 days cultivation?

 

If my curioisty can be satisified, is it that chi in general is also on the athiest list of things-that-don't-exist? Or only spirits? How old are the athiests on this board? I'd like to learn more about what an athiest taoist cultivator believes in, and what they actually practice and experienced through cultivation. I've never been exposed in person to those beliefs or personnel that share them. So i'm highly woefully uneducated in this subject. Please teach me!

 

I want to answer! With opinions derived from some experiences but also contemplation (which is troublesome for several reasons)

- Chi is not a 'does/doesn't exist' proposition. It's like 'does electricity exist'? If you've never experienced it, you'd say no. If you have, you'd say 'yes'.

- Spirits are a tricky subject. I don't think I've met any so far, except the ones inhabiting people and animals. I don't really want to meet any, except the ones inhabiting people and animals.

- I'm (attempting to) practice the undoing of belief (so maybe I'm not very helpful) in favor of the known

- I practice 'emptiness meditation', 'mindfulness', some amount of twicking around with thoughts, yoga, pilates, a bit of 'chi-play' when I feel like it (usually when scared or something or I have a bad feeling about something - which could point to it being something else, perhaps a way of 'self-calming' as those psychologists would say. A game of 'pretend' - I'm using methods I found in that big pink chi-gong book)

- I've written quite often about experiences on TTB's but I'm often reluctant to share because it sounds stupid, nuts, too weird, childish (pick one).