Why north ?

[CloudHands]

Why is north that important in daoist practices ?

[morning dew]

I seem to remember Jwing-Ming talking about facing north for certain qigong practices (or even sleeping with the head facing north?), I think, because of the body's polarity and the Earth's magnetic field. Not sure if that's what you were asking about?

[cheya]

Something about the North Star and the Big Dipper?
I thought you were going to TELL us, CloudHands... 

[rainbowvein]

^^

What cheya said.

 

The air (chi) is rarified in the north. (your head; earthly mountains; heavenly sun and stars)

[silent thunder]

North is home.

 

 

[Mudfoot]

North is down. 

 

So in your body,  north relates to your kidneys,  to the Huiyin area where jing/Water accumulates and so on. 

 

Outside of your body, you have the Cosmic powers collected by the big dipper and the pole star. Daoist methods place great value on this, as does some chinese buddhist methods. 

[rene]

5 hours ago, silent thunder said:

North is home.

 

 

 

It sure is for me! Mom told me every time I took off from home to go exploring I'd head north - so she always knew what direction to go looking for her little girl, lol. The pull is very strong.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

15 hours ago, cheya said:

Something about the North Star and the Big Dipper?
I thought you were going to TELL us, CloudHands... 

 

The earth rotates on an axis, or pole that runs from goes from North to South, this is why the Sun and stars seem to rise and set in the East and West, thus the ends of the "Pole" were seen as unchanging and the East and West as change and transformation.  Since these ideas developed in the Northern Hemisphere the part of the pole that is visible is the North Pole and at the time these ideas were being developed the North Star was almost exactly North and everything seemed to rotate around it as the "Center of Heaven", with the stars of the Dipper, or Bushel as the Chines call it permanently pointing in that direction.  Later when the Chinese developed the Loshu, the magic square of nine, this became formalized with the number one in the North as the Origin, thus the North Star became the star of the Heavenly Center, the One and the origin, and was associated with the trigram Kan, water, the original element from which the others arose, as taught in the Taiyi Shenshui, the Great One gave birth to Water.  Everything in traditional Chinese cosmology, not just Daoist cosmology, was built around these ideas.

[CloudHands]

6 hours ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

 

The earth rotates on an axis, or pole that runs from goes from North to South, this is why the Sun and stars seem to rise and set in the East and West, thus the ends of the "Pole" were seen as unchanging and the East and West as change and transformation.  Since these ideas developed in the Northern Hemisphere the part of the pole that is visible is the North Pole and at the time these ideas were being developed the North Star was almost exactly North and everything seemed to rotate around it as the "Center of Heaven", with the stars of the Dipper, or Bushel as the Chines call it permanently pointing in that direction.  Later when the Chinese developed the Loshu, the magic square of nine, this became formalized with the number one in the North as the Origin, thus the North Star became the star of the Heavenly Center, the One and the origin, and was associated with the trigram Kan, water, the original element from which the others arose, as taught in the Taiyi Shenshui, the Great One gave birth to Water.  Everything in traditional Chinese cosmology, not just Daoist cosmology, was built around these ideas.

 

Thanks a lot

[CloudHands]

22 hours ago, cheya said:

Something about the North Star and the Big Dipper?
I thought you were going to TELL us, CloudHands... 

 

How to put that... I don't know much about the arcanes of daoism. I do practices to my benefit, but (and that is the force of my teacher) they don't come with a lot of saying so I learn the how but I don't know much about why when where, just the basics.

 

So I'm partly here for the background. Sometimes doubtful religious sayings, sometimes fresh seeds all of it from doubtful to questionable often valuable

 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

21 hours ago, CloudHands said:

Thanks a lot

 

Your certainly welcome.

 

There is a lot of literature that explains this background material, an excellent overview of the development of Chinese thought in both philosophy and cosmology is Disputers of the Tao by A. C. Graham.  Graham is considered to be one of the top sinologists of the last century, and not only is it a good overview of the various Waring States period "schools of thought", but with its detailed notes an bibliography it is a good starting point for further research.  While it doesn't deal with some of the more recent developments, it is a good sound introduction to the field as it was at the end of the Twentieth Century.

[dawei]

North = Yin = feminine = black

 

There is a reason there was an original matriarchal system.

 

Or as was said elsewhere here, ""know the white" (differentiated stuff), while you "keep the black" (always know the truth)"

 

[Geof Nanto]

A

54 minutes ago, dawei said:

North = Yin = feminine = black

 

There is a reason there was an original matriarchal system.

 

Or as was said elsewhere here, ""know the white" (differentiated stuff), while you "keep the black" (always know the truth)"

 

 

.......And the truth is that there is no truth; rather mystery upon mystery.

[dawei]

7 minutes ago, Yueya said:

A

 

.......And the truth is that there is no truth; rather mystery upon mystery.

 

I feel I will side-track a little but 'mystery' in chinese is Xuan...  and I've always favored the translation of 'origin'.

 

The origin of origin...

 

but ZYD said it first

 

 

[Bindi]

1 hour ago, dawei said:

North = Yin = feminine = black

 

There is a reason there was an original matriarchal system.

 

Or as was said elsewhere here, ""know the white" (differentiated stuff), while you "keep the black" (always know the truth)"

 

 

Wouldn't 'differentiated stuff' be yin and of the earth, and the 'truth' be of the heavens and yang? 

[Geof Nanto]

40 minutes ago, dawei said:

 

I feel I will side-track a little but 'mystery' in chinese is Xuan...  and I've always favored the translation of 'origin'.

 

The origin of origin...

 

but ZYD said it first

 

 

 

But what is the origin other than mystery?

 

I'll leave it at that because I actually don't like to to pursue these sorts of discussions which, to my mind, go beyond what's expressible in words - indeed, beyond what I know. What I experience are deeper levels of mystery and at the same time deeper levels of connection. (I can see in retrospect that my search has always been for wholeness, not 'truth'.) 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Yueya

[Zhongyongdaoist]

42 minutes ago, Yueya said:

But what is the origin other than mystery?

 

And that's the Truth.

[rene]

1 minute ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

 

And that's the Truth.

 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

On 10/10/2017 at 7:13 AM, Zhongyongdaoist said:

Everything in traditional Chinese cosmology, not just Daoist cosmology, was built around these ideas.

 

I just thought I would give an example of this by this quote from the Analects of Confucius:

 

Quote

 

子曰：「為政以德，譬如北辰，居其所而眾星共之。」

 

The Master said, "He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it." (Chinese Text Project Confucius, Analects 2:1)

 

 

So in China all persons of authority are seated in the North, thus the throne of the Emperor as the ultimate worldly authority is in the North.  Daoist Temples have the statues of the Three Pure Ones in the North and a Daoist would face North in rituals designed to invoke them, the Doors to the Temple are in the South.  On the other hand when a Daoist practices transforming him or herself into a Deity they face South.  This carries over even into Feng Shui where North is the favored position and visitors should be admitted from the South.

 

The Attributes of the Loshu also carry over from this, because with One in the North, there are three yang Hun Souls in the East direction of Wood, dwelling in the Liver, and Seven Yin Po Souls in the West the direction of Metal, originating in the Lungs, and it continues on from there, in too much detail to recount here.

[XingLik]

 

On 10/10/2017 at 0:11 AM, cheya said:

Something about the North Star and the Big Dipper?
I thought you were going to TELL us, CloudHands... 

 

My two-penneth...

 

I was born in the Isle of Man. The triskellion, or legs of Man:

Represents a Viking cycle of 3 turns, used for navigation. The centre is the north star and the legs are the Plough (Big Dipper).

 

No judgements, just data, but it is similar to the swastika:

 The "armoured knees" are the "blade" part of the plough and an extra star is included for the toe.

 

Very Nordic, although the triskellion symbol appears widely in Greek seafaring nations too...

 

Something about the North Star and Big Dipper...

 

Another triskellion is very famous in martial arts circles:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomoe 

 

"Uncertain origin" huh?