Gods Living In The Body?

[cheya]

Great short piece by JAJ:

http://qi-encyclopedia.com/?author=Gods%20Living%20In%20The%20Body?

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Great short piece by JAJ:

http://qi-encyclopedia.com/?author=Gods Living In The Body?

 

This,

 

Master Ho's Theology, and the belief in certain "gods" living within the human body. He suddenly laughed, and then explained, "No, Jerry, that is not what the Master was speaking about. What he meant was simply inside the body are various internal organs. When you understand their energetic form, and speak their proper sounds, these special organs will vibrate. Once they begin to vibrate, you can access and draw upon the Qi and Shen that maintains and supports that internal Organ System."

 

. . .

 

I eventually came to understand that when the imagination begins to construct mental images of certain energetic patterns, the Shen (Heart/Mind) will suddenly be able to access the energy of these forms. For example, once my Tibetan Nyingma teacher was instructing students, when a violent thunder storm suddenly arose and began to quickly approach where he was teaching his disciples. He looked at the storm and told his disciples that the storm was a little child throwing a temper tantrum. Therefore, he immediately gave the storm a "name," and asked his disciples to speak to the child, call it by its name, and simply ask it to calm down. As all of the disciples began to call the storm by its name, and speak gently and lovingly in order to calm the "disruptive child," to their amazement, the storm suddenly vanished. ("Gods Living In The Body?", Qi Encyclopedia article)

 

reminds me of what I was trying to say here:

 

(The body god) . . . concept tends to give most Westerners interested in "Taoism" a conniption fit of sorts, because they cannot believe that the wonderful Taoists of their imagination could possibly believe in such nonsense. But, let us instead create a suitable model that will should convey a more satisfactory notion. If instead of thinking of Body Gods as superstitions we think of them as semi-autonomous auditory/graphic user interfaces for the mind/body complex developed by ancient Chinese for the purposes of biofeedback exercises, whew, what a mouth full, maybe that will make the idea a little easier to deal with. To turn this into a commonplace, think of them as cell phone apps for your body. They may even be more than that, but great journeys begin with little steps and thinking of them in this way may may be just the spoonful of sugar that helps the Cinnabar Pill go down.

 

. . .

 

If consciousness can alter brain function, why shouldn't those "apps" be useful? Maybe there is more to this "body god" stuff than meets the materialist's eye.

 

But to examine that we may have to look at the Microcosm/Macrocosm doctrine and a neglected aspect of the holographic principle.

 

(I had to edit the quote, for some reason in the some of the changes in Dao Bums, quote marks had become "�", which you will find if you follow this link.  Also, there is a lot of interesting discussion about this topic in relation to the Yellow Court and Middle Dan there, ZYD)

 

(Might his thread be better housed under 'Taoist Discussion'?)

 

Since these things are so little understood, but of great general importance, I think this is a good place for this.

 

[blue eyed snake]

nice, thanks for posting!

 

<<I eventually came to understand that when the imagination begins to construct mental images of certain energetic patterns, the Shen (Heart/Mind) will suddenly be able to access the energy of these forms>>

 

now that came home to me

[vonkrankenhaus]

It is a very good account of a westerner encountering eastern thought and explaining his initial (mis)perceptions or biases, and then further he explains to westerners the nature of the differences he saw.

 

This is a general process that people coming into these practices from western upbringing do encounter - the cultural assumptions not matching, the language used being not "literal", and so on.

 

And another reason it is good to have real people as teacher and not just book.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Going back to this part of what I quoted above:
 

. . . once my Tibetan Nyingma teacher was instructing students, when a violent thunder storm suddenly arose and began to quickly approach where he was teaching his disciples. He looked at the storm and told his disciples that the storm was a little child throwing a temper tantrum. Therefore, he immediately gave the storm a "name," and asked his disciples to speak to the child, call it by its name, and simply ask it to calm down. As all of the disciples began to call the storm by its name, and speak gently and lovingly in order to calm the "disruptive child," to their amazement, the storm suddenly vanished. ("Gods Living In The Body?", Qi Encyclopedia article)

 
Lest anyone think that this is only something that only Tibetan Nyingma teachers can do, it is a teaching and practice of traditional Western magic as shown by this quote from Book Three of Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy:
 

Chapter xxiv. Of the names of Spirits, and their various imposition; and of the Spirits that are set over the Stars, Signs, Corners of the Heaven, and the Elements.

But the masters of the Hebrews think that the names of the angels were imposed upon them by Adam, according to that which is written, The Lord brought all things which he had made unto Adam, that he should name them, and as he called any thing, so the name of it was. Hence the Hebrew Mecubals think, together with Magicians, that it is in the power of man to impose names upon Spirits, but of such a man only who is dignified, and elevated to this vertue by some divine gift, or sacred authority: but because a name that may express the nature of divinity, or the whole vertue of angelical essences cannot be made by any humane voyce, therefore names for the most part are put upon them from their works, signifying some certain office, oe effect, which is required by the quire of Spirits: which names then no otherwise then oblations, and sacrifices offered to the Gods, obtain efficacy and vertur to draw any spirituall substance from above or beneath, for to make any desired effect. I have seen, and known some writing on virgin parchment the name and seal of some spirit in the hour of the Moon: which when afterward he gave to be devoured by a water-frog, and had muttered over some verse, the frog being let go into the water, rains, and shours [showers] presently followed. I saw also the same man inscribing the name of another Spirit with the seal thereof in the hour of Mars, which was given to a Crow, who being let go, after a verse muttered over, presently there followed from that corner of the heaven, whither he flew, lightnings, shakings, and horrible thunders, with thick clouds: Neither were those names of spirits of an unknown tongue, neither did they signifie any thing else but their offices. Of this kinde are the names of those angels, Raziel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Haniel, which is as much as the vision of God, the vertue of God, the strength of God, the medicine of God, the glory of God. In like manner in the offices of evill Demons are read their names, a player, deceiver, a dreamer, fornicator, and many such like. (Twilight Grotto, Agrippa Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book Three, Chapter 24)

 
a man only who is dignified, and elevated to this vertue by some divine gift, or sacred authority: The key being that one must really have reached a certain level of proficiency before this will work, but it does work and is amazingly useful.
 
Now this definitely belongs in General Discussion because it deals with Daoist, Buddhist and Western magical teachings.

[vonkrankenhaus]

Re:

-----

"He looked at the storm and told his disciples that the storm was a little child throwing a temper tantrum. Therefore, he immediately gave the storm a "name," and asked his disciples to speak to the child, call it by its name, and simply ask it to calm down. As all of the disciples began to call the storm by its name, and speak gently and lovingly in order to calm the "disruptive child," to their amazement, the storm suddenly vanished."

-----

 

My children do this all the time.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus