What is it that you pursue?

[Wayfarer64]

Great advice QiDr....

 

My ideas have some similarities...

I keep hoping and praying that youth is not wasted on the young. It is the time to gain experience, a time to be exaltant in life's exquisite bounty. Youth is not the time to dwell on the coming of one's old age, beyond the basic awareness that it will come and time is a precsious gift.

 

There are stages to all growth, seed to sapling to tree to compost, so it is with all being. Use what you have - to the fullest while you may.

 

The journey is a great joy much of the time. I do not believe that life is only for overcoming our selfishness, but also to develop our selves to become pure of spirit, one in all.

 

So I suggest to all who are still young to dwell in the now and grow beyond your current limitations as you are able. Gaining both strength and wisdom to enable your spirit to manifest wonderous examples of human ability, and learn the joy of using those abilities to help the world you live in become a better world for all of life. Old age is not to be feared. It may be approached as a perfect time for reflection and meditation.

 

Think about how you use time. We all do waste much of our lives in needless worry and desire. Being contented with small progress or impatient for large changes each have their place in the flux of change. Learn to adapt to the changing world around you. That seems to be accelerating at a very rapid pace to me. Many securities may be left in the dust,so your inner self needs to be strong.

[Spectrum]

Empathy is natural. Empathy involves the dynamic flux of personal identification w/ others. Empathy is very important in the process of healing.

[林愛偉]

Do you [not just Sean here, just using this as a jumping point) really believe that there is no separation between yourself and the other?

 

I've always had trouble with this. In my field of perception, I am at the center, you at at the periphery. My thoughts swirl about this center, but your thoughts are unknown to me. I have no face, but I see your face clearly. Some one hits you, I don't feel your physical pain. We may stand on the same ground and breath the same air, but are we REALLY the same?

 

 

There is nowe. AndYes.

 

 

Peace,

AiWei

[sean]

Do you [not just Sean here, just using this as a jumping point) really believe that there is no separation between yourself and the other?

 

I've always had trouble with this. In my field of perception, I am at the center, you at at the periphery. My thoughts swirl about this center, but your thoughts are unknown to me. I have no face, but I see your face clearly. Some one hits you, I don't feel your physical pain. We may stand on the same ground and breath the same air, but are we REALLY the same?

Been meaning to reply to this. I love this contemplation here, so honest and direct.

 

I would ask - Are you sure there is a center? Can you answer: Whose pain do you really feel when someone strikes you? Whose pain do you feel when you see someone struck? You and I -- separation -- a personal self -- they exist in the sense that they are visceral. The sense of them certainly arise and aren't clarified by pretending they aren't there. I am looking out of my eyes at you and you are over there. There is an overwhelmingly strong sense that I can wave my arms around and have no control over your arms whatsoever. Yet can you get a taste that these are just qualities? Manifestation has particularities or else it would be unmanifest theoretical probabilities. So there becomes near and far, black and white, hot and cold, here and there ... among this arises an experience named and felt "what I think I can directly control and call myself, at the center here" and an experience named and felt "what I cannot control and refer to as out there - other". But what (if anything) precedes this? In a way the answer is nothing does. This is it. But can you taste that there is something closer and more immediately true than your experience? Before thought, before feeling, before perception ... yet also right with them.

 

What are you really?

 

Sean

[xsplat]

I've given up my search for absolute enlightenment (not that I know what it is). I'm seeking the Western form of enlightenment which I consider truly enjoying who you are and what you do. (making steady progress). Physical enlightenment, meaning my esoteric energy systems are flowing strongly (slow progress). Psychological enlightenment, meaning being totally in the now, reduced or no ego (making slow progress).

 

From an alchemical taoist point of view I want to feel the sun in heart and hear it sing. Feel the Oceans in my belly, the green of spring in my right side, clarity of winter in my left. To experience within my physical microcosm is the macrocosm of the universe and hear/feel its song. (slow but steady progress).

 

I wrote down when I retired 2 years ago that my goal was superior health and happiness. I'm bunny hopping towards them.

 

da da da da da ta da da da da dah, da da da da da da dadada

 

Michael

Great post. If I'm understanding you, then my attitude is very similar.

My main focus seems on just enjoyment, but the particulars involve feeling and embodying and integrating strong life/sexual force, resting in the moment not doing much other than relaxing and noticing, thinking about stuff, and just hanging out and having fun. Of course feeling strong life force deepens into compassion and connection with others, as to Grok chi is to love and be connected to people.

 

One turning point that made a very big difference to me happened after an at home two month chi-kung intensive, and was strongly infulenced by sexual practices with a rare and powerful woman. It had to do with feeling a downward type of flow. It seems to me now that energy is available to me, not just originating at the base of the spine or from any organ, but from above my head, to flow down, especially to the dan tien. And energy below my feet is often felt as a limitless reservoir - not my own, but it doesn't need to be - I'm connected to it. Whereas before I felt the need to limit orgasms to one or maybe two per week, on some days now I'll want to ejactulate several times a day, and I replenish quickly - much quicker than ever before in my life. And this replenishing makes me feel loving and content - this energy feels itself as content and loving, and full, and often rather powerful.

 

So, that's what I'm about, lately. I know I could work more on cultivating awareness throughout the sleep times. It's been decades since my practice was that subtle.

[Spectrum]

"how can Taoists advocate selflessness when their prime mission is cultivation of personal knowledge, chi, etc. "

 

Because of the foundations in which progress is made by the adept or inheritor disciple of any Taoist tradition. Cultivation is rooted in Emptiness. Attachment to a goal reveals personal selfishness, and invites further inquiry into the nature of self. Learn and forget. Forget to learn; learn forgetfulness.

 

Spectrum

[goldisheavy]

Now to my question.

I have read several books on Taoism and the actual goals of Taoism are elusive to me.

 

Me too. I just enjoy reading Chuang Tzu. It is funny and it says something to me, something that is not well said by other sources.

 

I think as long as the actual goals remain elusive to you, you are on the right track. If the actual goals become obvious to you, that is a sign of danger. It's a sign that your mind has clamped down around an explanation and has stopped questioning.

 

An open discussion of what it is exactly that Taoism does for you on a personal level would be interesting.

 

For me Taoism is just a set of books. I don't mean to denigrate it by saying that. There is the way and the mystery, but I don't call it "taoism". When I read Lao Tzu, something is evoked within my being. I cannot tell you exactly what it is, but my mindheart responds definitely to the writing. When I read Chuang Tzu, I laugh and laugh and laugh. How funny is my mind? How funny are people. How funny is everything. Truly we are idiots. It's good to know that. And if you want some really interesting stories, then look up Lieh Tzu.

 

It's fun and it does something with the mind. I learn best when I play. How about you?

 

Other than that, it's not really Taoism that's important. It's your life. Your mind. Your heart.

 

There is an authentic energy. I can't say what it is. It's not subject to definition and it cannot be pointed out. Nonetheless, eventually it can be intuited. Then you can relax. All things happen just right. No heavy chronic worries for you. You might have a little fun worry here and there. But you know that this authentic energy is right, no matter what the mind can think about. It's not subject to analysis. It's not an object of perception. It is only discovered when the trash is taken out of the mind -- it is what's left. I am it. You are it. What is this "it"? I cannot say. "it" is not really an accurate way to speak of it, but I don't have a better word. Don't look for it...just clear away your confusion. Confusion is a side-effect of certainty. Clear away certainty and confusion is gone. When the mind is not certain, it is impossible for it to be confused.

 

Ok, enough ranting for now. you asked for it.

[sean]

Other than that, it's not really Taoism that's important. It's your life. Your mind. Your heart.

AMEN!

 

Your whole post!

 

Sean