Jing Deficiency? Thoughts?

[charlesjorden]

Hello everybody! My name is Charles, I am from California and I am 22 years old. I usually figure problems out on my own but cannot solve this problem that has been haunting me for almost two years now. I'll give a quick rundown of the problem and the steps I have taken to solve it. I have been smoking weed just about everyday from the age of 17 to 21. At 21 I left my job because it was stressing me out so much, I had never felt that much stress before in my life. After working there for two years I finally quit but was left with a feeling that my "soul was tired". That's the only way I could explain that feeling. As time went on I was having a hard time finding a new job and my money was getting low so I left the stress of a secure job to the new stress of being broke and lost in the world. The bottom line was that I was heavily stressed. So that led me to smoking more and more weed and it eventually got to the point where if I wasn't high I would be highly emotional which wasn't like me. I then started having random emotional breakdowns for no apparent reason. But then after 6 months of being jobless I went to go smoke some weed and I had my first panic attack ever. I just remember my hands and feet got really cold and I felt this very intense electricity through my body all while I was in my car alone. After that I couldn't drive so I had my sister pick me up and take me home. I went to sleep early that night and when I woke up I realized that the world looked strange. Something I know now as "derealization". It has been a year and a half since then and I will list off the symptoms I've been having. Tinnitus, Dry Eyes, Dark Cirles, Fatigue, Insomnia, Weak Knees, Energy in my head, Bloating which causes me to constantly burp, A locked left ankle that lasted for two weeks, and Ulcers in my mouth. I also have anxiety now which I've never had on this level and/or constantly. Now that that's out the way I have tried it seems everything under the sun to get my body back to normal. I did a detox, Somatic Experiencing, Acupuncture, Worked on my Root Chakra, Excercise, Walk as much as I can, Ground as much as I can etc.. I'm sure there's a lot more that I've tried but those are the main points. After googling multiple things over the year I have come across many explanations of why this is happening but nothing sticks. I am from the Western society so everybody that I talk is trying to push drugs on me but I know that's not the route I'd want to go. There are thousands of people with this same problem that live with it for years, even decades but this is not a life to live at all! Anyways, it wasn't until I came across this user on here named "Lush Lemur" and he has given me the most hope out of everything I've researched. He tells his problem AND how he solved it. He went through the same ordeal as me except his wasn't triggered by weed. He explains that he had Derealization as a symptom of Kundalini Syndrome and he used reverse breathing to fully cure himself and get back to normal. He also noted that conserving jing was essential to this practice as he stores it in the lower dan tien. That statement alone got me thinking... Have I depleted my jing essence and this brought upon and anxiety disorder? The one thing I didn't mention was that I have made masturbation and sex an every night occurance for the past 10 years. I rarely ejaculated more than once a day but nevertheless it's a problem. Since reading Lush Lemurs' post a month ago I immediatley started my semen retention journey and have been successful thus far. I have not seen any improvement but at the same time I have not been doing reverse breathing nearly 200 times a day as he suggested as it causes my chest to tighten (yes, i am doing it as gentle as possible). I do have nearly every symptom of a depleted kidney yin energy so I went to acupuncture yesterday and got treatment for that. I would message Lush Lemur but it says that he cannot recieve messages sadly. So I am posting this here in hopes for some feedback from you kind people as this is my life on the line here. Thank you! I'll respond to all suggestions.

[thelerner]

Hi Charlesjordan, my thoughts are beware of going from extreme to extreme.  It's good to go slow and work on 'better'.  On the mundane.  We don't 'chop wood and carry water' only after enlightenment.  We do it before.  It's figuring out our necessary jobs, and how to do it well.  Hell, I just figured doing laundry once a week, not when absolutely positively needed, is the way to go.  Not esoteric practice but the things we need to do each day to make our lives better.

 

Glad you realize drugs are not great solution.  Using marijuana every day as a teen is probably bad.  One's brain is still developing and for all its positive affects, MJ can be a powerful demotivator.  Good idea taking a break from drugs and extreme practices.  Like allergies, finding solutions might be best by doing less, then adding things and seeing how they feel. 

 

I don't remember Lush Lemur here.  The only person I see of that name only had 3 introductory posts.  I hope you find some good answers here. Welcome to the site. 

 

Here's something positive.  You know what's been good for my 'jing'.  Kettlebell swings.  While its a whole body kind of exercise, the hip/hinge movement, seems to add to the pelvic strength, inner and outer, imo.

 

 

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At your leisure, please review-

 

[Nuralshamal]

Hi CharlesJorden,

Thanks for sharing your story.

Living an unhealthy lifestyle in general depletes our jing faster than normal.

I have actually heard that smoking weed converts jing into shen. This is why people binge eat after smoking, because their bodies know they need to replenish their jing.

It's similar to having to eat high calorie snacks after sex, masturbation and ejaculation. The body naturally wants to replenish its jing. 

So! Actually, simply living life depletes our jing. Hence, it's normal, natural and unavoidable.

However! The only problem is if we deplete it too fast.

This can lead to problems.

The best cure is very simple, albeit not necessarily easy. 

Look after your sleep (sleep sufficiently each night).

Look after your diet (eat healthy foods, avoid unhealthy stuff).

Look after your stress levels (through sleep, food, correct planning, and of course meditation and relaxation, we can manage our stress better).

Finally, after all of these things are perfect (or close to perfect), qigong and herbs will also help. There are specific qigong exercises for strengthening our Kidney system and our jing, and there are also specific herbs for this purpose.

[freeform]

@charlesjorden 

 

Welcome to the forum  

 

What you describe is indeed jing and kidney yin depletion. It’s combined with issues in the liver (all regular marijuana users have this issue).
 

Once the kidneys are not able to ‘anchor your Qi’ - your Qi will rise and scatter - causing anxiety, racing thoughts, emotional outbursts, heart palpitations and all the other symptoms you mention.

 

It’s not popular - but the answer is indeed as @Nuralshamal says - it’s all about the boring fundamentals.

 

The issue with doing reverse breathing with with jing and kidney yin deficiency is that it will further sap your jing! 
 

You must first recover before you can build.

 

The reverse breathing helps to sink the mind to the Dantien - which is centring and helps with all manner of other things - but you have to build up to it - otherwise it would cause more of a problem than anything.

 

Being moderate with sex/masturbation is good. But the key is moderate - once a week or once every other week is fine - and healthy... You’ll need to avoid ‘lust’ too - because it’s not just ejaculation that depletes jing - it’s also lust, desires and addictions.

 

The first and possibly hardest thing is that you’ll have to stop using weed. From people I’ve helped the best way seems to be to switch to CBD only edibles for a period of around a month - and then slowly taper off that too.

 

This can be hard! Cannabis can be as - if not more addictive than many other drugs when it’s used as a sort of emotional support thing over a long period. So you’ll need some help and support to do this.

 

Secondly you need to fix your sleep... 8hrs every night - no less and no more (the no more is also important). You need to establish a regular sleep pattern - where you wake up the same time every day (even weekends)... And you must be asleep by 11pm every evening (which will greatly help the liver and increase your vitality). This also takes time to do - consistency is the key.

 

Once sleep is sorted - exercise is crucial. Find something you enjoy and do it several times a week.

 

Once these three fundamentals are in place, ask for assistance here and I’m sure people will help direct you to reverse breathing material.

 

Just remember - don’t expect this transition to be easy. But know that at the end of it (within 6 to 9 months) you’ll feel like a new person - far stronger and more resilient.

 

Ask for help from people in your life - and even here.
 

You can do it!

Good luck!

[Cleansox]

Hi @charlesjorden

 

This thread is already full with good advice, but hey, I will chip in anyway. 

 

I thought I would post from the perspective of western medicine, although you will see most is basically on repeat from prior posts. 

 

1) Quit recreational drugs, and stay away from psychopharmaca. 

They are an obstacle in your path, if your path is to be able to regulate your emotions and other reactions in daily living. You have already wasted an important formative period in your life, so now is the time to get back on track. 

 

If you are in to computer games, I would advice taking a breake with them as well. At least all that are based on violence or competition, they wind up the brain which is against the purpose of healing the brain. 

 

2) Get rythm in your life. Your body (including your brain) will heal faster if you have regular habits. 

Sleep (covered excellent in a post above) is important, as is eating regular and including a good breakfast. 

 

3) Diet. Yes, I saw the Jing depletion issues above. That doesn't say a jing replenishing diet is your first focus, you might have to lay a foundation first. Since my dietary skills sucks, I would advice googling anti inflammatory diet, because thats where I would advice you to start. Actually, most things I mention here is part of an anti inflammatory regimen, for good reasons. 

 

4) Exercise. This is important, because motor skills are fairly entwined with emotional regulatory skills. 

Walking is nice, if one take care to walk in a relaxed way. Learn to feel how walking feels, that is one useful way for working with dissociative issues. 

 

Add kettlebells. Basic kettlebells exercises are useful because you use the entire body, again, feel how the body feels while exercising. Don't overdo the sensing, soft focus works best. 

 

After you have done this for weeks, titrate in more social situations (Yeah, hard in the age of Covid, but small controlled doses of social life heals the brain as well). 

 

I can see the point of proper reverse breathing, it does very good things for the brain, I can also see that it comes in later in a rehabilitation. 

The same goes for the emotional regulatory skills that proper awareness training gives. 

 

Somatic experiencing and other methods can be useful, but there is a reason I mention them last in this post. The other stuff should be done first. 

 

As stated above, these things take time and effort. Don't expect short time results, it will take as long as it takes. 

 

[charlesjorden]

On 12/24/2020 at 9:38 AM, freeform said:

@charlesjorden 

 

Welcome to the forum  

 

What you describe is indeed jing and kidney yin depletion. It’s combined with issues in the liver (all regular marijuana users have this issue).
 

Once the kidneys are not able to ‘anchor your Qi’ - your Qi will rise and scatter - causing anxiety, racing thoughts, emotional outbursts, heart palpitations and all the other symptoms you mention.

 

It’s not popular - but the answer is indeed as @Nuralshamal says - it’s all about the boring fundamentals.

 

The issue with doing reverse breathing with with jing and kidney yin deficiency is that it will further sap your jing! 
 

You must first recover before you can build.

 

The reverse breathing helps to sink the mind to the Dantien - which is centring and helps with all manner of other things - but you have to build up to it - otherwise it would cause more of a problem than anything.

 

Being moderate with sex/masturbation is good. But the key is moderate - once a week or once every other week is fine - and healthy... You’ll need to avoid ‘lust’ too - because it’s not just ejaculation that depletes jing - it’s also lust, desires and addictions.

 

The first and possibly hardest thing is that you’ll have to stop using weed. From people I’ve helped the best way seems to be to switch to CBD only edibles for a period of around a month - and then slowly taper off that too.

 

This can be hard! Cannabis can be as - if not more addictive than many other drugs when it’s used as a sort of emotional support thing over a long period. So you’ll need some help and support to do this.

 

Secondly you need to fix your sleep... 8hrs every night - no less and no more (the no more is also important). You need to establish a regular sleep pattern - where you wake up the same time every day (even weekends)... And you must be asleep by 11pm every evening (which will greatly help the liver and increase your vitality). This also takes time to do - consistency is the key.

 

Once sleep is sorted - exercise is crucial. Find something you enjoy and do it several times a week.

 

Once these three fundamentals are in place, ask for assistance here and I’m sure people will help direct you to reverse breathing material.

 

Just remember - don’t expect this transition to be easy. But know that at the end of it (within 6 to 9 months) you’ll feel like a new person - far stronger and more resilient.

 

Ask for help from people in your life - and even here.
 

You can do it!

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply! I now work out a few times a week, have been celibate a little over month now but I do need to stop the lust because I am still "leaking". I haven't smoked or had a drink for over a year now as it makes me very anxious. I have gotten kidney focused acupuncture for the twice in the past two weeks. Although it is quite expensive and I may have to stop soon. I have received herbs from the acupuncturist called "Zuo Gui Wan" and it should last me about a month for twenty bucks. As far as how I feel I don't feel any different so far but I know great things take time. If anyone has anymore suggestions I'd gladly take em'. I have also stopped the reverse breathing techniques.

[freeform]

11 hours ago, charlesjorden said:

I haven't smoked or had a drink for over a year now

ok - great  in that case there’s different advice.

 

How is your sleep and diet? 

[charlesjorden]

6 hours ago, freeform said:

ok - great  in that case there’s different advice.

 

How is your sleep and diet? 

I went Vegan back in May as I was attempting to "heal my gut" by Western standards. After two months nothing changed so I eventually stopped. I am more concious now of what I eat but it isn't always the best. At that time I was also masturbating or having sex every single day. My sleep is better as far as being uninterrupted. Sometimes I'll wake up randomly at 3AM. I have fatigue throughout my day so I'm usually exhausted by 10 unless I am productive all day. It has changed a lot this past year but lately I'll be out by 11 forsure. I'm not employed either so I get my full 8-9 hours.

[charlesjorden]

On 12/18/2020 at 3:56 AM, Nuralshamal said:

Hi CharlesJorden,

Thanks for sharing your story.

Living an unhealthy lifestyle in general depletes our jing faster than normal.

I have actually heard that smoking weed converts jing into shen. This is why people binge eat after smoking, because their bodies know they need to replenish their jing.

It's similar to having to eat high calorie snacks after sex, masturbation and ejaculation. The body naturally wants to replenish its jing. 

So! Actually, simply living life depletes our jing. Hence, it's normal, natural and unavoidable.

However! The only problem is if we deplete it too fast.

This can lead to problems.

The best cure is very simple, albeit not necessarily easy. 

Look after your sleep (sleep sufficiently each night).

Look after your diet (eat healthy foods, avoid unhealthy stuff).

Look after your stress levels (through sleep, food, correct planning, and of course meditation and relaxation, we can manage our stress better).

Finally, after all of these things are perfect (or close to perfect), qigong and herbs will also help. There are specific qigong exercises for strengthening our Kidney system and our jing, and there are also specific herbs for this purpose.

Thanks for the suggestions! I've been searching the solution to my problem daily for almost teo years now and this is the most confident I have ever been into something actually working. My question is how do I stay confident in this process? I have created a bad habit for myself which is losing faith in the process. Especially if I can't guarantee that I will see the light at the end of the tunnel. This leads me to quit or move on to the next thing fairly quick, within' weeks. I know there's no exact timeline for a person, everyone is different. But could anyone give an estimate of when I should start to feel better if I manage stress, sleep well, eat well, exercise, and continue to take these herbs, and maybe acupuncture here and there? This state that I am in is a very dark place and I want to see it through. Somr reassurance that I am headed in the right direction would be amazing.

[freeform]

17 hours ago, charlesjorden said:

if I can't guarantee that I will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s no guarantee with anything I’m afraid. 
 

But I can tell you that I’ve seen people in worse situations than yours turn their life around.
 

The key to any change is consistency over a long period of time. In fact you’ll hear ‘gong’ a lot in all these Chinese arts... it means something like ‘masterful skill developed over a long period of dedicated training.’

 

You have a choice between two modes of suffering. 
 

You either suffer with regret and your present condition...

 

Or you suffer the difficulty of discipline and hard work.

 

One of those is hugely rewarding and moves your life forwards... and the other is a spiral into darkness.

 

There’s no quick fix sadly. But equally - choosing a life of discipline is a reward in its own way... it just takes time and effort to uncover.

 

Secondly - you can’t really use willpower to make this change - will power fades - you need to set up a system and follow the system indefinitely. Have a look at the book Atomic Habits - it covers many different approaches to do that. Plus the author also went through a major difficulty and transformed it with good habits.

 

With diet the big things to start with is removing all sweet drinks (including ‘natural’ juices and sugar free ones) from your diet completely. Then removing any other sugar and eventually processed foods. 
 

Vegan diet is not suitable for most people. To build jing do have red meat occasionally - but also eggs (yolks in particular) - nuts (walnuts) seeds etc.

 

In terms of sleep consistent timing is important. Waking up at the same time every day - getting out of bed as soon as you wake up.

 

Ill find a specific practice you can do and post it here @charlesjorden

 

There’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. And in fact the light is far brighter than you thought... But it takes time for things to change - particularly kidney issues! Think how many years you’ve spent getting into this situation... it’s gonna take more than 2 months to get out.

 

I’ve seen people in a similar situation get back to relative normality in 6 to 9 months... but there’s something even better than ‘normality’ there for you if you make it a life commitment... 

[Nuralshamal]

On 26.12.2020 at 5:57 PM, charlesjorden said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I've been searching the solution to my problem daily for almost teo years now and this is the most confident I have ever been into something actually working. My question is how do I stay confident in this process? I have created a bad habit for myself which is losing faith in the process. Especially if I can't guarantee that I will see the light at the end of the tunnel. This leads me to quit or move on to the next thing fairly quick, within' weeks. I know there's no exact timeline for a person, everyone is different. But could anyone give an estimate of when I should start to feel better if I manage stress, sleep well, eat well, exercise, and continue to take these herbs, and maybe acupuncture here and there? This state that I am in is a very dark place and I want to see it through. Somr reassurance that I am headed in the right direction would be amazing.

Hey Charlesjorden,

If something new you introduce into your life is very suitable for you, you should feel a positive benefit that very same day. At the very minimum, at least within the first 7 days.

If you don't feel the effect (even minimally positive) within 7 days, it's not certain whether that thing will really work for you in the long run.

But remember, we have several layers:

1) physical

2) energetic

3) emotional

4) mental

5) spiritual

 

So, if what you describe as "a very dark place" is actually something occurring on the emotional and mental level, measures taken at the physical and energetic will help somehwat, HOWEVER, it will not solve the actual problem.

All the measures suggested so far are at the physical and energetic levels (sleep, exercise, herbs, diet etc).

What brought you to weed in the first place? Think about that. 

Problems at the emotional and mental level, need emotional and mental solutions. 

[freeform]

@charlesjorden - here’s the practice that will assist you greatly. There’s just one subtle change to the instructions - anchor to the lower Dantien - don’t go down lower to the huiyin as instructed in the recording. This is important.

 

 

Make it a daily practice - and you’ll see some major improvements in time.

[freeform]

16 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

Problems at the emotional and mental level, need emotional and mental solutions. 

I don’t agree with that.
 

In fact much of Daoist methodology is based on making the change at a different ‘level’ than where the problem is most apparent.

 

18 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

If you don't feel the effect (even minimally positive) within 7 days, it's not certain whether that thing will really work for you in the long run.

Similarly - while this might apply to some things - I personally don’t believe this should be treated as a ‘rule’.
 

In fact much of what is good for you is difficult and uncomfortable and unpleasant... known as ‘eating bitter’ in Asian cultures.

 

And much of what is not so good for you feels pleasant and positive in the beginning.

 

If it’s taken many years (especially during formative teenage years) to create an issue - it will take a long time to create a stable change. And it won’t necessarily feel fruitful or positive in the first few months - let alone 7 days...

[Nuralshamal]

Hi Freeform,

Yes, I agree.

It takes time to create a problem, hence it also takes time to solve that problem.

What I mean is that you should feel something pretty soon, when you implement a change. If you're used to only sleeping 3 hours per night, but your true need is 9 hours, the very first few days you switch to a better routine, you will feel noticeably more rested. Hence, feeling better so soon is a sign, a sign that actually giving your body the rest it needs is good for you. This will motivate you to continue.

Yes, it's also true that much of Daoist ideology is focused very much on the body and energetic level. I agree with this as well. 

It's easier and less complicated to produce solutions and give advice on these levels, and they DO help. If someone who has emotional traumas from their childhood, but also eats only junk, sleeps 4 hours per night, never exercises, are very very obese etc, simply helping them change their physical body and their energy will affect their life positively. No doubt about it.

However, it won't heal the root cause - their emotional childhood trauma. 

So, I completely agree with you. Fix the body and energy first, that advice is universally helpful for everyone on this Earth. It's the easiest level to change. It's much easier to exercise, eat healthy, look after your sleep etc, than resolving emotional traumas.

But we shouldn't say that body and energy can heal everything. We're multifaceted beings, we should be practical at each level. Most people (even high level qigong and meditation masters) also have childhood and psychological issues. We all do, it's normal and natural. 

If we completely neglect our psychology, and instead just do qigong whenever we feel bad, yes, we will get strong and healthy on the physical and energetic layer, but we shouldn't shy away from dealing with our psychological issues as well.

[Wilhelm]

42 minutes ago, freeform said:

@charlesjorden - here’s the practice that will assist you greatly. There’s just one subtle change to the instructions - anchor to the lower Dantien - don’t go down lower to the huiyin as instructed in the recording. This is important.

 

 

Make it a daily practice - and you’ll see some major improvements in time.

Can confirm.  I've been on this one daily for a few months, and have noticed the following effects - it helps you calm down, it makes you more energy efficient (by bringing the mind and breath down somewhere stable), it helps you sleep (you literally get your mind out of your head for the most part - but this doesn't mean you're dumb, just calm and grounded), and if you're interested in Nei Gong etc. It'll start making the LDT your natural focal point - though that'll take quite a bit of work, I'm only partway there.

[Wilhelm]

12 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

But we shouldn't say that body and energy can heal everything. We're multifaceted beings, we should be practical at each level. Most people (even high level qigong and meditation masters) also have childhood and psychological issues. We all do, it's normal and natural. 

If we completely neglect our psychology, and instead just do qigong whenever we feel bad, yes, we will get strong and healthy on the physical and energetic layer, but we shouldn't shy away from dealing with our psychological issues as well.

Pardon me for butting in!  My experience is different here.

 

I was taught that Qi was the intermediary between the body and whatever the hell Shen is.  From my experience, work based in the body and Qi can very much change who you are psychologically - just because Qi has that ability to affect things 'upstream and downstream' (i.e. my body has a way different quality to the tissue after doing Qigong for some years)

 

No doubt that adding certain mental qualities would help create this change, but for a long time all I was doing was maintaining mental calm and relaxation so my mind wouldn't get in the way of changes happening!  More recently I'm working on further mental qualities, but this is more to do with meditation than creating emotional/psychological changes.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Wilhelm

[freeform]

13 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

What I mean is that you should feel something pretty soon

I see - yes, you’re right - you should certainly feel something quite quickly  

 

14 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

But we shouldn't say that body and energy can heal everything.

This brings up something I find particularly interesting about Daoism... and I’ll only keep going if it’s of interest - otherwise it feels like I’m disagreeing for the sake of it - and I’m not  

[Cleansox]

7 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

However, it won't heal the root cause - their emotional childhood trauma. 
/... ... /

But we shouldn't say that body and energy can heal everything. We're multifaceted beings, we should be practical at each level. Most people (even high level qigong and meditation masters) also have childhood and psychological issues. We all do, it's normal and natural. 

If we completely neglect our psychology, and instead just do qigong whenever we feel bad, yes, we will get strong and healthy on the physical and energetic layer, but we shouldn't shy away from dealing with our psychological issues as well.

Yes, no, and maybe. 

 

Daoist work isn't just on the physical and energetic layers, there are also a huge amount of awareness practices. 

 

Being aware of how one subtly reacts, and training the mind to react differently, is part of healing old emotional issues. 

 

Psychological translates to physical really fast (mainly through the innate immune system and neuro-inflammation or through the threat response systems), and many of the methods implied in some traditional meditation traditions are mirrored in modern psychotherapeutic methods. 

[Cleansox]

2 minutes ago, freeform said:

I see - yes, you’re right - you should certainly feel something quite quickly  

 

This brings up something I find particularly interesting about Daoism... and I’ll only keep going if it’s of interest - otherwise it feels like I’m disagreeing for the sake of it - and I’m not  

Keep it coming... 

[Wilhelm]

1 minute ago, freeform said:

This brings up something I find particularly interesting about Daoism... and I’ll only keep going if it’s of interest - otherwise it feels like I’m disagreeing for the sake of it - and I’m not  

I have a guess: Qi being the pivot point between body and mind that can affect change in all 3 levels?

[freeform]

15 minutes ago, Wilhelm said:

it helps you calm down, it makes you more energy efficient

Indeed. This method also helps to consolidate jing, calm overactive emotions and begins to allow the Qi to sink... all of what the OP requires at this time...

 

It also happens to lead to reverse breathing eventually  

[Nuralshamal]

@Wilhelm

Yes, very true. The body, qi and shen are connected. By affecting one of them, we affect all.

@Cleansox
Indeed, all of the layers are connected.

@Freeform
I completely agree. 

This is indeed the great power of qigong and chinese medicine. You might be one with God, being good to everything and everyone, never hurting any living being. However, if you're weak and sick all the time... That's not fun either

By taking care of our body and energy through qigong and herbs, we make sure our "instrument" is optimal. Our body indeed is God-given, by taking care of it, we're actually serving the Universe.

If we're strong, healthy and energetic, we can do our duty to self, Family and Society. And because of our surplus energy, we can even help a bit extra, when/if necessary.

If we're weak, sickly and tired all the time, we go down. Then we become a burden on both Family and Society, others have to take care of us.

So, actually NOT taking sufficient time for self-care and cultivation is egotistical, whereas taking good care of ourselves is altruistic.

Plus, a strong body with strong energy makes it easier to enjoy life  

Edited December 28, 2020 by Nuralshamal

[freeform]

Just now, Wilhelm said:

I have a guess: Qi being the pivot point between body and mind that can affect change in all 3 levels?

Yes - exactly.

 

Qi, physicality and mind are not separate...

 

Working on the mental level will create change on energetic and eventually the physical level. (If it’s done effectively).

 

But for the Daoists, making a change on the Qi level is by far the most efficient... 

 

Releasing childhood trauma on the Qi level is in fact much easier than on the mental level... any thinking or feeling about the trauma will further anchor that trauma into your acquired nature...

 

Simply focusing on something and even thinking of it as a problem (or solution) creates a kind of attachment.

 

Thats why you see people going to psychotherapy for years and years... 

 

Similarly you can create an opposition... so if you felt disempowered and dominated as a child - you may either get yourself into similar situations - or indeed get yourself into the ‘opposite’ situations  - for instance you become the dominator... or even you want to fight domination and disempowerment in the world.

 

All of this is a form of attachment - whether it’s in ‘agreement’ or ‘opposition’ to your trauma.

 

On the Qi level, you can release some major trauma without even realising it...

 

It’s as if you completely forget that this trauma ever happened. There’s no agreement or opposition - there’s nothing there anymore. 
 

That’s the ideal ‘healing’ from a Daoist perspective... because it sets one up for spiritual growth.

 

In the west the ‘opposition’ type of change is often seen as a healthy response to trauma... because it appears to drive positive action in the world. That’s why you hear of many millionaires who came from dire poverty.

 

But to a Daoist this is still attachment.

 

Qi is more efficient because it’s as @Wilhelm says - it’s the intermediary... you don’t get attached to Qi in the same way you get attached (whether through clinging or aversion) to emotions or thoughts and experiences...

 

 

[freeform]

13 minutes ago, Nuralshamal said:

You might be one with God

Actually - if you truly are one with God - then your Qi will be in perfect balance and at a very high level...

 

Except in reality the majority of people are one with the idea of God... which is something completely different  

[Nuralshamal]

@freeform

Very well said, that's very true.

There's something in us and in the universe that's in perpetual motion. Forever shifting, changing and evolving. Letting go of attachment can help us tune in to this, and "surf" on this wave of constant change.

The other part of us and the universe is a "constant", immovable, unborn, uncreated, eternal and unchanging.

Some spiritual systems are sometimes "fixated" on only one of these. However, they're both there.

Finally, there's the "observer", "experiencer", "knower" or "witness" to these two states.

The moving state allows us to harmonize with the universe and its everchanging nature, and aligns us with it.

The static state allows us to always have a "sanctuary" of rest, where we can find peace, no matter what's taking place on the outside.

Finally, the witnessing state allows us to "exit" both states, and free ourselves of both being and non-being.

Indeed, these three are what's sought after and praised in every single religion and spiritual tradition.