Auspicious day/date to start spiritual practice according to daoism

[Loveherbs]

Is there a concept of auspicious day or date to start spiritual practice? Is there any harm if we just start it on any random day?

[freeform]

2 hours ago, Loveherbs said:

Is there a concept of auspicious day or date to start spiritual practice? Is there any harm if we just start it on any random day?

The best time to start spiritual cultivation is years ago. The second best time to start is today 

[Taomeow]

11 hours ago, Loveherbs said:

Is there a concept of auspicious day or date to start spiritual practice? Is there any harm if we just start it on any random day?

 

Of course -- if you intend to take your practice seriously.  Traditionally (and to this day for those who are traditional practitioners) the best days for launching important endeavors have always been carefully calculated by bazi readers, feng shui masters and diviners, the worst days avoided.  The Tung Shing, the taoist almanac and divination tool, provides a lot of such information to those who can read and interpret it. 

 

E.g. today and tomorrow are not auspicious days to start anything new or important, with the exception of any defense preparations that one may want/need to undertake.  And I wouldn't even be at liberty to say that if it was also a San Niang ("master-killing") day -- for several reasons -- but today is not one of those.

 

The day after tomorrow should be fine (unless there's an individual, personal conflict with the qi of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches of the day, or even of a particular hour of the day...  but I won't take the analysis that far, not knowing your bazi, and just hope there isn't.)      

[Gerard]

Anytime, any day, anywhere. Worry more about good, hard work and discipline over a lifetime of practice.

 

[Taomeow]

Why don't we rename The Daobums while we're at it.  How about Sanctimonious Platitudes Bums?     

[Cleansox]

You are right, you were the only one answering the question. My first knee-jerk reaction was also to write "just start with the f practice, but that wasn't what was enquiered. 

 

And I do not think that a traditional teacher would say" Hey, Wall-Mart is closed, so lets baishi this dude 'cause I am bored". 

 

Alas, my understanding of the divinatory arts is close to zero, so.... 😁 

[freeform]

49 minutes ago, Cleansox said:

My first knee-jerk reaction was also to write "just start with the f practice, but that wasn't what was enquiered. 

When my teacher was accepting students I’d see him laugh every time someone relatively new to the practice asked these sorts of questions - what time to practice, what direction to face, what feng shui is best for practice, what colour training outfit is best etc etc.

 

What he explained to me is that this sort of thing only really applies to people who are already closely resonating with nature... And it can make that extra 2% difference - which for an Neidan practitioner at a crucial stage of cultivation is important - whereas for a beginner doesn’t make any difference at all.

 

He said that the tendency for beginners is to be over-perfectionistic with their practice which is effectively an unconscious stalling tendency.

 

‘Oh I’ll start training when the planets have aligned, and I’ve moved to a house with perfect feng shui and I finally get those red silk trousers and when the clock strikes 12’... and they obviously never get anywhere.

[Taomeow]

Taoist arts are based on the taoist sciences of space-time.  Unlike Western sciences that have been concerned almost exclusively with manipulating and "conquering" all aspects of Space ("Space...  the last frontier..."), taoist sciences have always been revolving around mastering Time.  That's the main and most unfortunate reason western-style-educated folks, regardless of ethnicity, are used to ignoring the timing aspects -- while traditional taoist practitioners will invariably start there.  Invariably.  

     

My taiji teacher knows little about these things too, but never belittles traditional taoist arts on the basis of not practicing all of them.  He's more of a specialist -- and will accept advice from a specialist in those arts on occasion.  

 

My taoist teacher, on the other hand, is meticulous about auspicious timing for particular practices without being fundamentalist about it, of course -- just prudently aware.  E.g. long distance group practice of shuigong takes place on the 14th, 15th, and 16th days of each lunar month, synchronizing and amplifying access to the qi of the whole lineage for practitioners even though they are located on different continents. 

 

Of course those who are "already closely resonating with nature" would just know.  Since no one in modern times lives like that, and hasn't for thousands of years, our sixth-sense-stunted contemporaries get instructions as to how to increase that resonance.  E.g. men, who he asserts are somewhat less attuned than women (even modern women), are generally not able to perceive their own "periods" which are much subtler and a bit different timing-wise but not nonexistent none the less -- so they are advised to follow their woman's "lunar calendar" and to pay attention to what their female partners choose to do on each day, mimicking it instead of ignoring it, much less opposing it.  The second day of the period, for instance, many women undertake all sorts of cleaning endeavors in their outer environment, quite unconsciously but like clockwork.  Men are advised to emulate that and participate.  Older women who no longer have their periods still have a hormonal/qi counterpart working, only on a much subtler level, and to listen to that clock is also a good idea.  To check it against the universal clock (which is what taoist arts of space-time are based on) is the next step.  And so on.

 

"A sage grabs Time by the coattails and values an inch of Time over a foot of jade." --  Zhuangzi            

Edited October 10, 2020 by Taomeow

[silent thunder]

I lean towards Taomeow's and her Teacher's approach in this.

 

It is a given to me that one will practice, and that the drive exists for such, or the question of when is best to begin would not be presented.  That the question is even sought and presented, to me is an indication of a level of foundation and awareness already present in the student that is in itself auspicious and will be appreciated and enhanced by a connected teacher.

 

Dismissing Seasonal and Auspicious/Inasupicious Timing as utter hogwash and a useless refuse to practice is alien to me, seems to me like a hammer response.  There are no toxic bi-products in life to me these days.  That which I call waste... is lately perceived as more akin to a resource I do not, or cannot yet perceive as a resource... and so to my disadvantage, I sometimes dismiss or discard it as useless.

 

When a hammer is my only tool, all situations will begin to resemble nails of one sort or another.

 

subtlety is a dance thoroughly saturated throughout the process of internal and subtle awareness work in my experience.

spherical listening... whole being listening.

 

If procrastination is the issue, then procrastination does not require Timing to engage.

(My knee has a twinge, my closet needs sorting, my sister needs an operation on her crotch, an endless stream of options to avoid practice will arise and practice will not happen.)

 

Auspicious days arise constantly, each Lunar month.

True, some paths and avenues are best sought out in longer cycles of Seasons and the 12 year cycle... but when considering a practice that will span decades... what are a few weeks? 

 

Often an auspicious day is just round the corner.  One need not postpone indefinitely to make good use of existing and arising conditions to suit personal goals.

 

that said...

 

Neither too heavily in any direction so I lean...

Dancing is a rhythmic exploration of moderate imbalance leaning into flow and counterflow.

And my practice, as perceived in the long term has come to resemble a life long dance quite distinctly.

 

My appreciation for deftly using existing forces (through seasonal timing and feng shui) to one's advantage, in addition to one's own essential intentional force and drive to accomplish more with less wei wu wei (act without forcing)... comes to resemble the old Druidic tale of how the Wren became the King of the Birds.

 

The sage, through whole awareness listening may enact and align greater forces with their own lesser personal expenditure in adroitly dancing individual intent, and personally derived force with existing conditions to much deeper impacting resultant force, than mere personal will in any given conditions...

 

Not too dependent on logical analysis so that one is paralyzed into inaction by 'potentially imperfect timing'.

Yet not discarding the remarkable advantages of timely/seasonal influences in coordination with one's goals.

 

Dancing with one's self and one's surroundings.

As without, so within.

[Fido]

what are some good sources to get a legit accurate reading for things such as this? 

[Taomeow]

41 minutes ago, Fido said:

what are some good sources to get a legit accurate reading for things such as this? 

 

 Depends on how far you want to go with it.  If you want to study the arts, there's teachers, courses, and books.  If you want to get a  quick idea of what the day is going to be like and what it's good/not good for, you can get the Chinese Farmer's Almanac or Tung Shing.  A new one is published every year and has been for almost 4000 years.  There's usually a couple of decent English version you can find, the very basic ones are inexpensive, the more in-depth ones can get pricey.    

[Cleansox]

18 hours ago, freeform said:

 every time someone relatively new to the practice asked these sorts of questions - 

In this case, the OP popped basically the same question in the hindu section, which made me interpret it as it was not primary connected to the issue of starting a practice but rather a general/cultural question.

My post should be seen in the light of this. 

[Cleansox]

15 hours ago, Taomeow said:

Taoist arts are based on the taoist sciences of space-time. 

As a spin-off to this context, I have found when studying Nei Dan texts to complement/complete my practice, some knowledge about Stems & Branches and loosely related subjects are needed to understand the texts.